That's it for another day on the blog.

After some pre-opening anxiety, the ASX, and most stock exchanges in the region, waved away concerns with little or any damage inflicted by US investors fleeing for the exits (again) overnight.

Wall Street, at least for now, seems to overcome its latest conniptions and futures trading on the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq point to a positive opening later tonight.

CBA powered through the tumult, closing 4.2% higher at new record close of $168/share.

Gold pushing through $3,500/ounce was more predictable, hoovering up liquidity splashed around in the "Sell America" trade.

The blog will recharge its batteries overnight, but in the meantime, you can tune into The Business with Kirstin Aiken on ABC News at 8:45pm AEST or after the Late News on ABC-TV to get another finance fix.

Until next time ...

Fears that Wall Street's 3% overnight dive would hit the ASX have been vanquished.

Having opened sharply lower, the ASX 200 clawed its way back to close down just 2 points from where it started the day.

There was some damage across the sectors, particularly among the uranium miners and some industrials, but nothing as severe as witnessed in the US overnight.

The banks had mixed day with the exception of CBA.

The world's most expensive bank leapt 4.2%, seemingly on no new news, to a record close of $168/share. 

Macquarie gained 0.6% after offloading an offshore asset management business for $2.8 billion.

The big miners were also mixed with BHP and Rio Tinto eking out small gains on slightly firmer iron ore prices, while the other major players suffered.

Tech stocks did not enjoy the best of days after the Nasdaq tumbled almost 3% overnight.

However, such was the heft of CBA that the big end of town represented by the ASX 20 index gained 0.5%.

Gold miners dominated the ASX 200 top movers as the price of gold pushed through $US3,500/ounce

Uranium miners featured prominently among the ASX 200's biggest losers along with payment platforms Zip Co and Block.

The world's most expensive bank CBA just got a little more expensive after another blistering day's buying by investors.

CBA jumped 4.2% to hit $168/share, eclipsing the previous record of $166.72 set back in February.

Bit of news flash here — Reuters screens have just flashed the alert that gold has punched through $US3,500/ounce.

That's it — you can go back to what you were doing.

• ASX 200: flat at 7,817 points (live values below)
• Australian dollar: +0.3% to 64.34 US cents
• Asia: Nikkei -0.2%, Hang Seng +0.5%, Shanghai comp +0.5%
• Wall Street: Dow -2.4%, S&P 500 -2.5%, Nasdaq -2.5%
• Europe (Thursday): DAX -0.5%, FTSE flat, Eurostoxx -0.3%
• Spot gold: +2.1% to $US3,500/ounce
• Brent crude: +0.5% to US$66.60/barrel
• Iron ore (Thursday): +2.2% to $US99.60/tonne
• Bitcoin: +1.2% to $US88,361

Prices current around 4:20pm AEST

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

Hi team,

Just jumping in with the latest from the Australian Institute of Petroleum on what you're paying at the pump.

The national average price of a litre of unleaded petrol fell 0.9 cents to 178.8 cents in the week to Sunday.

Weekly data from the Australian Institute of Petroleum details the slide, which puts the average further below  the 12-month average figure of 185 cents.

International market trends are lower, meaning we're likely to see that cost flow down over the coming weeks once fuel is bought in Singapore, shipped here, unloaded, put into trucks, transferred to petrol station tanks and then into the fuel tank of your car. 

Amazingly, after all that, most service stations make their margin on the chocolate bars.

AustralianSuper has confirmed money was taken from 10 accounts in a recent cyber fraud that affected a number of super funds.

The figure quoted in a letter to fund members from chief executive Paul Schroder is higher than previous estimates.

Earlier this month, AustralianSuper temporarily locked about 600 members' accounts that were considered vulnerable to the fraud.

"Our systems repelled most of the attempted fraud on these accounts but unfortunately, money was stolen from 10 accounts," Mr Schoder said.

"All of those members have been reimbursed. We will continue to investigate this matter."

Mr Schoder was at pains to point out that AustralianSuper had not been "hacked".

"Criminals used stolen passwords and personal identity information from other sources to access accounts to commit fraud," he said.

"Unlike other recent cyber incidents reported in the media over the last few years, cyber criminals did not access our systems."

The big broker Morgan Stanley has cut its year-end target for the ASX 200 to 8,000 points, which would represent a roughly 2% gain from current levels.

However, it is a 6% cut from the previous forecast of 8,500 points, a level Morgan Stanley says could now be reached mid-2026.

Morgan Stanley's respected equity strategy team, led by Chris Nichol, says Australia is emerging "from recent tariff volatility in a resilient position".

Most of the downward revision can be sheeted home to risks relating to lower global growth and falling commodity prices.

"[The] Defensive appeal for the Australian macro and equity market investment case, at least in relative terms, has been on display in the recent period of market volatility," Mr Nichol wrote in a note to clients.

"Minimal first order tariff impacts combined with still supportive fiscal settings and a degree of monetary policy flexibility to counter global growth risks can be seen as attractive."

The Morgan Stanley house view is for a 25bp rate cut next month, followed by cuts in July and August taking the cash rate down to 3.35% to the end of the year.

The Morgan Stanley modelling lifted its "bear case" scenario from an end of year 6,250 points to 6,750 points.

"There is always some further residual risk from commodity-linked earnings but this is somewhat compensated by an expectation that domestic-sourced earnings can benefit from an RBA finding neutral at a faster pace than previously thought and still supportive fiscal dynamics," Mr Nichol said.

Are you a property investor or would-be home buyer with views around housing policy in the lead up to the May 3 election?

The major parties have revealed a slew of policies, some targeted at helping first-time buyers into the market, while others aim to encourage more supply.

The Coalition and Labor are staying away from negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

The Greens have called for the tax breaks to be phased out for investors with more than one investment property.

Business reporter Nassim Khadem is looking into the issues weighing on home buyers and investors as they prepare to head to the ballot box and would like to speak to people for a TV story.

Get in touch at khadem.nassim@abc.net.au.

Just a quick glance at the screen to see how Wall Street is looking ahead of opening later tonight and it seems the market has regained its composure with futures trading in the three key indices pointing to gains.

• S&P 500 futures: +0.4%
• Dow futures: +0.3%
• Nasdaq futures: +0.4%

There is of course an important caveat here; these figures don't include any impact from any yet to be published White House social media posts. 

This morning's characterisation of US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell as "Mr Too Late" by President Trump seemed to trigger a $US750 billion sell off.