ASX 200 rises on BHP profit surge; Challenger smashed; Tassal accepts $1.7bn bid

ASX exits technical correction as BHP lifts on profit beat. Challenger smashed on results; Seek falls after reporting, Life360 jumps on outlook and consumer confidence rebounds.

Investors are weighing reports about China’s slowing growth with a number of major earnings updates. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Tuesday, August 16. The Australian share market has exited a"technical correction" of its post-pandemic pull market as BHP and CSL lead broad gains.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed up by 0.6 per cent to 7105.40 - higher than the 7076.6 close it needed to exit correction territory.

On Wall Street, stocks turned higher with the Dow Jones up 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 index was 0.4 per cent higher and the tech-rich Nasdaq index lifted 0.6 per cent.

US 10-year bond yields fell to near 2.80 per cent, while US 2-year yields also edged lower to near 3.20 per cent.

Oil prices are down with global benchmark Brent crude falling 3.1 per cent to $US95.10 per barrel while the US Nymex crude price lost 2.9 per cent to $US89.41 per barrel.

Iron ore futures fell 2.8 per cent to $US106.79 per tonne.

The Aussie dollar was near US70.25c at the US close.