Thanks afternoon crew.
End-of-day summary:
Australian shares closed at a record as rising expectations for US interest rate cuts boosted gold miners and other rate-sensitive corners of the market.
The ASX 200 rallied 108 points or 1.24% during the market's strongest session in more than two weeks. This afternoon's close at 8,771.3 bested the previous closing high of 8757.2 by 14 points.
A 2.1% rally in the gold sub-sector helped the materials sector extend yesterday's rebound. Consumer stocks, REITs and banks also out-performed during a rally that lifted all sectors.
Overnight, US stocks had their best session since May as bargain-hunters took advantage of a four-day downturn in the S&P 500. The broadest of the major US stock benchmarks bounced 1.47% as the odds on a September rate cut climbed above 85%.
