Day traders' weekend lounge February 2 - 4

Thanks afternoon crew. Hope everyone made a quid. Have a good weekend.

End-of-day summary:

Australian shares soared to fresh heights as strong trading updates from several US tech giants pointed to a second night of Wall Street gains.

The ASX 200 recouped yesterday's losses plus some more, briefly cracking 7700 for the first time. The Australian benchmark traded as high as 7703.6 before marginally paring its advance to 111 points or 1.47% at 7699.4.

The real estate investment trust sector hit its highest level since May 2022 as traders anticipated interest rate cuts later this year. Gold miners, tech companies and small caps also shone. Utilities was the only sector to finish lower as AGL dropped 4.33%.

After-hours earnings this morning from Amazon and Facebook owner Meta Platforms propelled US equity futures towards record territory. S&P 500 futures rallied 0.52%. Nasdaq futures popped 0.95% despite a negative reaction to Apple's Q4 report.