ASX opens higher as oil stocks surge; AUB Group falls on $400m raise
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More news: Australian shares opened higher as energy and mining stocks paced early gains. The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 21.4 points, or 0.24%, to 8,963 at 10:40am AEDT. Five of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
Energy (+1.4%) was the top performing sector as oil giants Woodside Energy (+1.7%) and Santos (+1.8%) climbed after crude benchmarks lifted overnight. Woodside also reported record full-year production this morning.
Miners (+1.3%) advanced, as gold prices held above USD5,000. Gold producers Emerald Resources (+3.3%), Ora Banda Mining (+3%) and Pantoro Gold (+2.5%) led the rally.
Insurance broker AUB Group (-6.9%) was the worst performing company on the ASX 200, after completing a $400 million institutional placement to help fund its $432 million takeover of UK broker Prestige.
Australian shares to lift as S&P 500 extends rally; US health insurers plunge
The news: Australian shares are poised to climb at the open after the S&P 500 touched a record high overnight and tracked its fifth straight advance.
The numbers: Updated at 7:40am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 44 points, or 0.49% to 8,994.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.86%, S&P 500 up 0.48% and the Nasdaq up 1.09%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.27%, DAX down 0.15% and FTSE 100 up 0.58%.
- Spot gold: up 2.64% to USD5,143 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent up 2.65% to USD67.33/bbl and US WTI up 2.64% to USD62.23/bbl.
- AUD: up 1.05% at 69.85 US cents.
- Bitcoin: up 0.64% to USD88,769.
The context: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq extended recent gains overnight, while the Dow Jones retreated, as the US dollar fell to an almost four-year low and gold held above USD5,000.
Health insurers weighed on the Dow after the Trump administration proposed an increase in Medicare insurer payment rates. Humana (-20.5%), United Health (-19.9%) and CVS (-14.3%) all plunged.
However, tech majors Microsoft (+2.3%), Broadcom (+2.2%), Apple (+1.5%) and Meta (+0.6%) all lifted ahead of their earnings reports, due Thursday morning AEDT.
Elsewhere, new data showed US consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in January, reaching its lowest level in more than a decade.
