ASX opens flat, real estate and tech climb
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More news: Australian shares opened flat, as the tech and real estate sectors lifted in early trade.
The benchmark ASX 200 index was down by 1.7 points, or 0.02%, to 8,860 at 10:26am AEDT. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices opened in the red.
Real estate (+0.39%) led early gains, lifted by Goodman Group (+0.70%), Lendlease Group (+0.60%), Vicinity Centres (+0.60%) and Scentre Group (+0.24%).
James Hardie (+1.97%) was one of the top performers across the ASX 200 after eyeing $25 million in annualised cost savings for Q1 FY27.
IperionX (+1.86%) also opened higher after receiving $6.8 million in funding from the US Department of War.
Consumer discretionary (-0.63%) was the worst performing sector at the open, with the fall led by Light & Wonder (-1.60%), Eagers Automotive (-0.56%), Aristocrat Leisure (-0.56%) and Harvey Norman (-0.45%).
The overseas arrivals and departures data for November 2025 is due to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics at 11:30am AEDT.
Australian shares to open flat despite TSMC-driven Wall Street rally
The news: Australian shares are set to open flat after Wall Street's main indices rallied overnight, lifted by a surge in chip stocks after a rosy outlook and better-than-expected earnings from TSMC, alongside upbeat results from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs that wrapped up the big banks' reporting season.
Financials however have remained under pressure this week as investors weighed a proposed one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10%. The uncertainty has pushed the broader financial sector toward its worst weekly performance since October, despite solid profit growth from some major lenders.
Meanwhile, data from the US Labor Department showed weekly jobless claims rose by less than expected last week.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 4 points, or 0.04% to 8,884.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.51%, S&P 500 up 0.35% and the Nasdaq up 0.20%.
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.29%, DAX up 0.26% and FTSE 100 up 0.54%.
- Spot gold: down 0.45% to USD4,606 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent down 4.58% to USD63.47/bbl and US WTI down 4.91% to USD58.96/bbl.
- AUD: up 0.23% at 66.97 US cents.
- Bitcoin: down 1.78% to USD95,301.
The context: Wall Street rebounded on Thursday as a surge in chip stocks, sparked by TSMC's strong outlook, reignited confidence in the AI-driven tech rally. TSMC reported a 35% increase in fourth-quarter net profit and a 20% rise in revenue, both exceeding expectations. The company also said it expects capital expenditure to reach between USD52 billion and USD56 billion in 2026. The US-listed shares of TSMC closed 4.5% higher. Shares in Nvidia and other chip-equipment makers also rose.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also posted strong gains after beating quarterly profit forecasts, supported by strong trading and dealmaking activity.
On the data front, US Labor Department figures showed that applications for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, signalling that despite weaker hiring, the labour market has yet to see a rise in layoffs.
In New Zealand, BusinessNZ will publish its manufacturing PMI for December at 8:30am AEDT.
Locally, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release overseas arrivals and departures data for November 2025 at 11:30am AEDT.
The source: Reuters
