Australian shares dip as Trump rally loses steam

The local share market has slipped a bit, taking a break after three straight days of gain fuelled by the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Shortly after noon AEDT on Thursday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 27.8 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 8,402.0, while the broader All Ordinaries had dropped 28.4 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 8,652.1.

Overnight the S&P500 hit a record intraday high but ended short of a new closing high.

"Today was all about equities as markets temporarily shrugged off Trump policy uncertainty and instead focused on a swathe of corporate earnings and a big tech rally fuelled by AI stocks," ANZ researchers Brian Martin and Daniel Hynes wrote in a client note.

Eight of the ASX's 11 sectors were lower at midday, with energy, tech and telecommunications higher.

Materials was the biggest mover, dropping 1.1 per cent as BHP slipped similarly, Fortescue dropped 2.4 per cent and Rio Tinto retreated 0.9 per cent.

All of the big banks were down as well, with NAB, ANZ and CBA all dipping 0.2 per cent and Westpac retreating 0.3 per cent.

Praemium had grown 11.8 per cent to a two-year high of 85 cents after the wealth management platform reported that it had $62.1 billion funds under administration at year end, up 29 per cent from a year ago.

Rival Netwealth climbed 2.0 per cent to $30 after reporting it had $101.6 billion in funds under administration, after $4.5 billion in fourth-quarter inflows, a record for the company.

Elsewhere, Santos had climbed 0.6 per cent after reporting it made $US430 million in fourth-quarter free cash flow, and $1.9 billion for the full year.

Cyclopharm had advanced 12.3 per cent to a one-year high of $2.28 after announcing a new agreement with a US health care provider would allow for the use of Cyclopharm's lung imaging agent Technegas in up to 169 nuclear medicine departments.

The Australian dollar meanwhile was close to a one-month high against its US counterpart, buying 62.74 US cents, from 62.66 US cents at close of business Wednesday.