Afternoon trading March 7

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

The share market came within two points of a record following Wall Street's first rally in three sessions.

The ASX 200 traded as high as 7767 before trimming its advance to nine points or 0.12% to 7742 by mid-session.

Rebounds in tech stocks and battery metal miners in the US, and a fresh overnight high for gold were among this morning's drivers. Chalice Mining, Alumina, Life360, ResMed and Genesis Minerals were the index's top performers. Banking giant CBA hit an all-time high. The day's major drags included several resource heavyweights trading ex-dividend, including BHP, Rio Tinto and Woodside Energy.

US stocks bounced overnight after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reassured markets he still foresaw rate cuts this year “if the economy evolves broadly as expected." The S&P 500 firmed 0.51%.


Personal trading: Head wasn't completely in the game this morning. Only action was exiting AGY for a quicker profit than I expected after buying when it began to turn yesterday arvo.