Thanks @ttward and @Ravgnome as always. Shout out to @Telluride and @Bigmarn and @rick64 as well for revealing their human side - their struggles and successes - takes a lot of guts. I'm sure there are a lot of us out there with amazing stories behind the scenes. Have been tuning in to the ABC radio app - Cpnversations has a series of "Not what I had planned" podcasts - makes for interesting listening.
Despite a promising start off the back of a rally on global markets, the Australian share market ran out steam by midday and closed the day little changed.
The ASX 200 index ended steady at 5,952 after regaining its losses in the last hour of trade.
Utility firms, real estate, banks and miners lost ground but technology stocks, healthcare and energy companies were among the gainers.
The benchmark index had lifted by almost 0.8 per cent at its peak.
The broader All Ordinaries index rose by just 0.1 per cent to 6,142.
This was despite an overnight surge across global markets, as bargain-hunting investors piled into the sectors hardest-hit by the coronavirus recession, like banking, energy and travel.
Some of the best-performing stocks were mining contractor NRW (+4.5pc), Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals (+4.1pc), investment firm Janus Henderson (+3.7), Whitehaven Coal (+3.8pc), and technology firm Appen (+3.6pc).
On the flip side, biotech firm Mesoblast (-5.6pc), Cromwell Property Group (-3.3pc) and real estate trust Charter Hall (-2.5pc) were among the weakest performers.
A2 Milk's share price tumbled (-4pc) in its second day of falls.
On Monday, the dairy company's shares plunged 11.4 per cent after it issued an earnings downgrade, which it blamed on Victoria's strict lockdowns.
At 445pm (AEST), the Australian dollar had risen (+0.3pc) to 70.88 US cents as the greenback slipped from its two-month high.
"There has been some paring back of a [Reserve Bank] rate cut occurring as soon as October, with November now looking more likely," said NAB's economics director Tapas Strickland, who offered another reason for the stronger Australian dollar.
Piedmont Lithium surged for a second straight deal, after the lithium miner entered into a supply deal with Tesla.
Its shares jumped 38.1 per cent to 38 cents. This was on top of yesterday's 83.3 per cent surge.
The company said on Monday that it signed a five-year deal with Tesla to supply high-purity lithium ore mineral to the US electric carmaker.
The initial five-year agreement implies that Piedmont will supply about a third of its planned 160,000-tonnes-per-year spodumene concentrate produce from its deposits in North Carolina.
Both companies have an option to extend the deal for another five years.
The deal comes on the heels of Tesla's "Battery Day" presentation last week when chief executive Elon Musk shared his vision of novel, proprietary Tesla batteries, following which Tesla stock lost more than $US30 billion in market value.
Also, the deal is conditional upon both companies agreeing to start deliveries between July 2022 and July 2023, the Australian firm said.
The company is also listed on the Nasdaq index. Its US-listed shares skyrocketed 236.4 per cent to $US37.
Tech-related heavyweights like Apple (+2.4pc) and Amazon (+2.6pc) provided a major boost to US markets.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index added 410 points (or 1.5pc) to 27,584 points.
The broader S&P 500 went up (+1.6pc) to 3,352, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed sharply higher (+1.9pc) at 11,118 points.
Hotels, banks and airline stocks all gained more than the broad market, including Delta Air Lines (+5.2pc) and Bank of America (+2.6pc).
It was a similar story for European markets, with strong gains for Germany's DAX (+3.2pc) and Britain's FTSE 100 index (+1.5pc).
"The worst still lies ahead for risk assets in market correction," Guggenheim Partners' global chief investment officer Scott Minerd warned in an overnight tweet.
Even as markets rallied on Monday (local time), US markets are on track to post their first monthly declines since March, when markets were sent into a freefall by pandemic-related lockdowns.
From https://www.taste.com.au/ I am serving you up Smashed Avo on Sweet Potato Toast with a Strawberry Banana Smoothie to wash it down.
