Market Wrap / prescribing profits

The S&P/ASX 200 reached an intraday record of 8,575 points on Thursday after a slew of positive earnings results and the blockbuster debut of Chemist Warehouse boosted sentiment.The local market settled up 4.70 points at 8,540. 

Sigma, which finalised its merger with Chemist Warehouse, rose 3.6%.  The miners did a lot of the heavy lifting with BHP up 2.47% as Dalian iron ore futures prices rose for a second consecutive session. South32 also gained 3.50% as it increased its first half profit by almost 600%.Liontown was the best performing stock, up 8.79% and led the lithium miners higher, while Newmont led the gold miners higher. Northern Star rose 0.22% after boosting its dividend as underlying profit hit $1.4 billion. And Mineral Resources was up 7.33% after confirming Managing Director Chris Ellison's departure.In the meantime CBA extended its all-time high after its earnings beat. However, the insurers suffered with IAG falling 12.56% despite a jump in profit.

Pro Medicus lost 2.40%, as its half year net profit jumped 43 percent. 

Treasury Wine Estates was off by 5.31% as it softened its profit guidance, whereas Temple & Webster jumped 13.01% as sales topped market expectations.

Looking ahead, AirBnB, Coinbase and John Deere are reporting in the US overnight. Tomorrow, Woodside, AMP and Cochlear are among a dozen companies releasing earnings locally.