Afternoon trading October 30

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1, @uncleBuck and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Australian shares declined after the RBA's preferred measure of inflation slowed less than expected last quarter, dashing lingering hopes of interest rate cuts this year.

The ASX 200 dropped 43 points or 0.53% to 8206. Declines in consumer stocks, banks and industrials outweighed gains in miners, property trusts and tech companies.

The market briefly pared its fall after headline annual inflation slowed to a better-than-expected 2.8% last quarter from 3.8% per cent the previous quarter. However, core inflation held steady quarter-on-quarter at 0.8% for an annual rate of 3.5%, well above the RBA's 2-3% target range.

The odds on a November rate cut fell from an already-slim 10% to 5%, according to Bloomberg. The chances of a December rate cut drifted out to 20% from 30% before the data release.

"2024 RBA rate cuts dead, buried, cremated. 0.8% trimmed mean too high for comfort, especially with weighted median even stronger at 0.9%," tweeted City Index market analyst David Scutt.

US stock futures jumped this morning after Google-owner Alphabet's third-quarter earnings topped expectations. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures both rallied more than 0.3%.


Personal trading: Got a pip from the CR slump in WIN. Also took LIS at round-number support - nice low-volume pullback (so far, at least). May need another day or two to digest the initial surge.