Afternoon trading May 16

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Australian stocks surged to a six-week high, fuelled by a record night on Wall Street and increased bets on interest rate cuts after unemployment jumped last month.

The ASX 200 rallied 125 points or 1.61% by mid-session. Property stocks, gold miners and tech companies led a broad rally that lifted ten of eleven sectors. At this morning's peak, the rally swept the index to within 20 points of its all-time high, set in early April.

The market added to strong early gains after employment data showed the jobless rate increased to 4.1% last month from a revised 3.9% in March. An increase in participation offset a rise of 38,000 in total employment. Stocks rose as traders bet the rise would make it more likely that the RBA will lower rates before year-end.

The market's early strength followed a hat-trick of record closes for Wall Street's main stock benchmarks. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rallied between 0.88% and 1.4% overnight to fresh heights.


Personal trading: Squeezed a pip from WOA off the CR price. Took LRS, PIL and STX for any fractional recovery from this morning's dives.