ASX opens higher as gold and biotech stocks lead gains
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More news: Australian shares rose at the open, tracking advances on Wall Street overnight, as gold miners and biotech stocks led gains.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 46.7 points, or 0.55%, to 8,585.3 at 10:30am AEST. Nine of the 11 sectoral indices were in the green.
Several gold miners were among the best performers, with West African Resources (5.3%), Regis Resources (4.2%) and Vault Minerals (3.2%) all trading higher.
A number of biotech stocks also rallied, including Clarity Pharmaceuticals (4.3%), Mesoblast (3.5%) and Neuren Pharmaceuticals (3.5%).
Capstone Copper (-2%) was the worst performing ASX 200 company, compounding a 3% drop on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump announced intentions to impose a 50% tariff on copper.
Australian shares to open higher after Nvidia paces Wall Street rally
The news: Australian shares are set to climb this morning after chip maker Nvidia led gains on Wall Street, becoming the world's first USD4 trillion company, and as US Federal Reserve meeting minutes boosted hopes for further interest rate cuts this year.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 41 points, or 0.48%, to 8,571
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.49%, S&P 500 up 0.61%, and Nasdaq up 0.94%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 1.44%, DAX up 1.42%, and FTSE 100 up 0.14%
- Spot gold: up 0.36% to USD3,314 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent flat at USD70.19/bbl, and US WTI down 0.06% to USD68.29/bbl
- AUD: up 0.12% to 65.36 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 0.37% to USD111,166.
The context: US stocks advanced overnight as tech megacap Nvidia became the first company in history to achieve a USD4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) market capitalisation.
Investor sentiment was also buoyed after minutes from the Fed's mid-June meeting showed that most of its officials expect rate cuts will be appropriate later this year. The minutes showed that policymakers believe price shocks from new US tariffs will be "temporary or modest".
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump released a new batch of tariff letters on Wednesday, with duties set to take effect 1 August unless agreements are reached. He also said the US will impose a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil, which would represent one of the highest rates announced to date.
