By Staff reporter
The Australian sharemarket was lower at lunchtime with bank stocks weakening, but energy stocks have again risen as oil prices extended their rally on the back of President Donald Trump’s new sanctions on Russia’s crude industry.
Energy stocks advanced as crude prices added around 5 per cent overnight on the back of Trump announcing sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil in the hope of convincing Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to end the brutal war with Ukraine. Woodside Energy added 0.7 per cent and Ampol climbed 0.8 per cent in early afternoon trade
Oil companies boosted Wall Street on Thursday. Credit: Bloomberg
Financial stocks gave up early gains. Westpac was flat, ANZ Bank lost 1 per cent, Commonwealth Bank retreated 0.7 per cent and National Australia Bank shed 1.2 per cent.
Among the big miners, Rio Tinto advanced 1.4 per cent, Fortescue slipped 1.2 per cent and BHP was flat. Gold miners lost further ground despite the safe haven rising overnight, with Newmont (down 3.2 per cent), Northern Star (down 1 per cent) and Evolution Mining (down 0.1 per cent) all retreating.
The Australian dollar was fetching US65.10¢ at 12.52pm AEDT.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 per cent and crept back within 0.2 per cent of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones added 144 points, or 0.3 per cent, and finished just below its own record set earlier this week, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9 per cent.
Companies in the oil and gas business led the way, including gains of 1.1 per cent for Exxon Mobil, 3.1 per cent for ConocoPhillips and 3.4 per cent for Diamondback Energy.
Also helping to drive the stock market higher were strong profit reports from several big US companies, as the reporting season ramps up for their profits during the summer. The majority are topping Wall Street’s forecasts, as is usually the case.
Dow jumped 12.9 per cent, and Las Vegas Sands rallied 12.4 per cent after both delivered stronger earnings than analysts expected. Tesla shook off an early loss to climb 2.3 per cent after reporting a weaker profit but also stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
The pressure is on companies broadly to deliver solid growth in profits. That would counter criticism that their stock prices shot too high following a 35 per cent romp for the S&P 500 from a low in April.
On the losing end of Wall Street, Molina Healthcare tumbled 17.5 per cent after its profit for the latest quarter fell well short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Joseph Zubretsky cited a challenging environment for medical costs, and insurers across the industry have been warning about rising medical costs throughout the year.
IBM fell 0.9 per cent, despite reporting better profit and revenue than analysts expected. Wall Street focused instead on weaker-than-expected results for its Red Hat business, which provides open-source software products.
In the gold market, prices strengthened to halt a sharp recent slide. The price for an ounce climbed 2 per cent to $US4145.60 per ounce.
It had dropped sharply the last two days after setting its latest all-time high, as momentum suddenly gave out following what’s been a stunning year. The price of gold has jumped about 57 per cent so far in 2025.
Many of the factors that have sent gold on its monumental rise are still around, including concerns about the mountains of debt that the US and other governments worldwide are amassing. The US government’s gross national debt topped $US38 trillion ($58.3 trillion) on Wednesday, and the worry is that a continued acceleration will only worsen inflation.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.00 per cent from 3.97 per cent late Wednesday. That was ahead of a report coming on Friday that will show how much inflation US consumers felt during September. The report was initially due earlier this month but was delayed because of the US government’s shutdown.
With AP
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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
