Gains from energy and mining stocks helped the Australian sharemarket shrug off the cautious mood on Wall Street after US President Donald Trump spoke with China’s president overnight and said the two countries would resume trade negotiations.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 8 points, or 0.1 per cent to 8546 in the first few minutes of trade. That put the S&P/ASX 200 Index within 10 points of a new closing record. The All Ordinaries edged up 6.8 points.
The phone call between Trump and Xi Jinping, labelled by the former as a positive step, helped boost hopes trade tariffs may not harm Chinese demand for commodities as feared. Iron ore jumped 0.9 per cent and neared $US96 a tonne, while in energy markets, Brent rose 0.7 per cent. China is a major importer of crude and Australian iron ore.
Among the miners, BHP rose 0.9 per cent and Fortescue was up 0.4 per cent. Oil giant Woodside rose 1 per cent.
The gains were offset by some wider cautious as investors await the latest monthly US jobs report that will fan speculation about the Federal Reserve’s next round of interest rate cuts.
That’s after profit-taking hit US stocks in the final hours of trade ahead of the all-important jobs report late on Friday (Saturday AEST), with the S&P 500 closing down 0.3 per cent. Markets are expecting a month-on-month fall in March’s non-farm payrolls to 126,000 and unemployment to remain steady, though a surprise rise in jobless claims overnight could derail that expectation.
In Australia, typically defensive utilities and consumer staples stocks advanced with Woolworths up 0.5 per cent and Meridian Energy 3.5 per cent.
And Bitcoin retreated more than 3 per cent and neared $100,000 after a fresh feud between two major cryptocurrency players dealt a blow to Trump’s expansion plans for digital currencies.
In corporate news, Ora Banda Mining dropped 9 per cent after warning it expects full-year gold production to come in below guidance due to extended downtime at its Davyhurst project.
SkyCity Entertainment Group rose 2.3 per cent after suing Fletcher Building for $NZ330 million ($306 million) over what it claimed was “gross negligence” in the construction of a New Zealand convention centre. Fletcher was down 1.5 per cent.
Whitehaven Coal rose 1.2 per cent after Morgan Stanley doubled down on its overweight rating, forecasting operational improvements and cost-out initiatives will boost the coal miner’s output and lower costs.
EBR Systems jumped 6.3 per cent after reporting it had successfully implanted ‘Wise’ heart pacers in the first commercial US patients ahead of a wider market release in October.
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