Afternoon trading March 6

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

The share market tilted towards a third straight loss as a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street was compounded by renewed weakness among battery metal miners.

The ASX 200 dipped 20 points or 0.26% by mid-session, continuing a run of modest setbacks since Friday's record close. Gains in banks, property stocks and utilities helped cushion the index against a bigger loss.

The tech sector slumped 2.1% after a wave of profit-taking swept the high-flying Nasdaq overnight. The Nasdaq Composite finished 1.65% lower after briefly losing more than 2%. The S&P 500 shed 1.02%.

Last week's rebound in lithium miners continued to unravel as lithium carbonate futures dropped another 3.6% this morning in China. Arcadium Lithium gave up 11.04%, Core Lithium 6.25% and Liontown Resources 3.53%.

In economic news, the economy expanded 0.2% last quarter as government spending, exports and construction helped offset declines in discretionary spending. Economists had predicted growth of 0.2 - 0.3%.

“Households upped their spending on essential items like electricity, rent, food and health. Meanwhile they wound back spending in discretionary areas including hotels, cafes and restaurants, cigarettes and tobacco, new vehicle purchases and clothing and footwear,” Katherine Keenan, ABS head of national accounts, said.


Personal trading: Caught the low in WC8. Also scraped a pip from WHK.