The ASX200 trades 4 points higher at 6980 at 3.20 pm Sydney time.
Despite a strong session on Wall Street overnight, the ASX200 has failed to hold onto its early gains and cement a much-needed toehold above the psychologically important 7000 level.
The muted performance comes after a 7% slump in the price of crude oil this week that weighed on energy stocks. Woodside Energy fell 2.65% to $31.65, Beach Energy fell 1.95% to $1.77, and Santos fell 1.34% to $7.00.
The release of a record $17.7bn trade surplus for June driven by exports of grains and metals has failed to help the Materials Sector as commodity futures slumped in China.
Lynas Rare Earths lost 3.93% to $9.18, Rio Tinto fell 1.45% to $95.39, BHP fell 1.25% to $38.13, FMG fell 1.2% to $17.80, and OZ Minerals fell 1.1% to $18.41.
The financial sector has made gains as three of the four majors wasted little time passing on the full amount of Tuesday's 50bp RBA rate hike to both mortgage holders and savers. CBA added 1.37% to $101.85, Westpac added 0.65% to $21.89, NAB added 0.32% to $30.88, ANZ added 0.15% to $22.75, and Macquarie added 0.25% to $176.93.
The IT Sector has been the best on ground for the second day running. Tyro Payments surged 13.5% to $0.97c after Elliott Management took a $2bn stake in rival payments firm Paypal, a move that has also supported Block, which added 8.45% to $125.54.
Life360 found itself and added 7.95% to $4.62, Appen added 6.14% to $4.41, and cloud company Megaport gained 5.63% to $9.19. After early gains, ZIP and Sezzle have reversed lower to be trading -4.15% and -2.3%, respectively.
A mixed day for Lithium stocks. Galan Lithium added 5.75% to $1.29, Vulcan Energy added 3.2% to $7.76, Liontown Resources added 2.4% to $1.40, Lake Resources, fell 1.1% to $0.88c and Pilbara Minerals fell 0.9% to $2.78.
The sustained recovery above 6960 has negated the technical damage from the selloff in June. However, it would be amiss not to note that the loss of momentum daily candle that is currently forming at today's 7021 high looks very similar to the candle that formed at April's 7025 high.
Source Tradingview. The figures stated are as of August 4th, 2022. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This report does not contain and is not to be taken as containing any financial product advice or financial product recommendation
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