By Staff reporters
The Australian sharemarket has started trading on Monday despite a technical issue hitting the market operator this morning.
The S&P/ASX 200 was up 7.5 points to 8621.6, while market operator ASX continues to look into an issue with publishing market-sensitive announcements. A number of companies have been placed in a trading halt due to the problem.
Wall Street edged higher to extend its winning streak.Credit: AP
On Friday, Wall Street rose for a fifth straight day to put the wraps on a volatile month.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent in abbreviated trading on Friday and closed out November with a slim gain of 0.1 per cent. The Dow Jones rose 289 points, or 0.6 per cent. The Nasdaq gained 0.7 per cent but ended November with a drop of 1.5 per cent because of losses for some big tech stocks. The Australian dollar was trading at US65.43¢ at 5.20am AEDT.
US stocks swooned in mid-month as investors worried that stocks boosted by the frenzy around artificial intelligence such as Nvidia had gotten too expensive. Nvidia lost 1.8 per cent Friday and closed the month with a double-digit loss. Oracle fell 23 per cent in November while Palantir Technologies sank 16 per cent.
Some tech stocks did notch monthly gains, most notably Alphabet, which rose nearly 14 per cent, due to excitement about its recently released Gemini AI model.
The market turned around on hopes the Federal Reserve will again cut interest rates at its meeting next month. Recent comments from Fed officials have given traders more confidence the central bank will again cut interest rates at its meeting that ends Dec. 10. Traders are betting on a nearly 87 per cent probability that the Fed will cut next month, according to data from CME Group.
The central bank, which has already cut rates twice this year in hopes of shoring up the slowing job market, is facing an increasingly difficult decision on interest rates as inflation rises and the job market slows. Cutting interest rates further could help support the economy as employment weakens, but it could also fuel inflation. The latest round of corporate earnings reports was mostly positive, but economic data has been mixed.
The minutes of the Fed’s most recent meeting in October indicate there are likely to be strong divisions among policymakers about the Fed’s next step.
Investors also had their eye on retail stocks as they wait to see if shoppers rushed to take advantage of the annual Black Friday sales event. Macy’s fell 0.3 per cent while Kohl’s gained 1.4 per cent. Dick’s Sporting Goods dropped 0.5 per cent. Among specialty retailers, Abercrombie & Fitch rose 2.9 per cent and American Eagle Outfitters gained 0.7 per cent.
Amid the volatility in tech stocks, traders moved money into other parts of the market. Pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Merck each rose more than 20 per cent for the month. Travel-related companies such as Marriott and Expedia also posted strong monthly gains.
Earlier, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were halted for hours due to a technical issue at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. CME said the problem was tied to an outage at a CyrusOne data center.
Treasury yields rose slightly, with the 10-year yield at 4.02 per cent.
In European trading, Germany’s DAX rose 0.3 per cent even as a report showed inflation accelerated more than expected in November and rose to the highest level since February.
The CAC 40 in France rose 0.3 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.2 per cent after data showed Japan’s housing starts rose 3.2 per cent in October from the same period a year ago, the first annual increase since March.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.5 per cent after the country’s industrial production fell 4 per cent month-on-month in October, more than the 1.1 per cent decline in September.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
