Steve Daglian

Welcome to the ComSec Market Update.

Exactly right.

And we actually finished at the best levels of the day as well.

So I think markets are very much just taking a little bit of a breather, maybe not getting ahead of themselves too much.

Yes, there's been some encouraging signs as far as the Middle East situation is concerned, including

President Trump hinting that the war may be nearing an end, that a deal with Iran is looking very good, the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, all of these things, you know, good news.

But I think markets are just sceptical that we're out of the woods completely.

Nothing is formalised yet.

And we know that an escalation is just a tweet away.

So the market may be not wanting to overreact to this, especially as you say, you know, we've had a pretty good run.

Last week was the best week in about four years for our market.

We're sitting just below that

9,000 point level for the ASX 200, which in the past has been a little bit of a psychological barrier, if you will, for markets.

We've traversed that level a few times this week, but we just haven't really been able to stay above it for very long.

And also we're so close to a record high despite everything that's happening globally at the moment.

Exactly right.

Just one step at a time, but certainly it could have been worse.

And the way that the market has barely budged this week, if we take a step back from those actual daily moves, have been tiny in both directions.

So markets very much in wait and see mode.

Across the sectors locally today, there are some relatively big moves, but certainly the best