ASX opens higher as energy stocks rise; gold miners sink
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More news: Australian shares rose at the open, as energy stocks extended gains from Wednesday.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.3%, or 23.6 points, to 8,420.5 at 10:40am AEST.
Nine of the 11 sectoral indices were in the green, with energy (1.3%) and telco (0.7%) stocks leading gains.
Clarity Pharmaceuticals briefly jumped nearly 9%, before settling around 2% higher, after the radiopharmaceutical company said it had imaged its first participant in its phase three AMPLIFY trial for patients with prostate cancer.
Gold stocks led declines, with Bellevue Gold (-3.7%), Vault Minerals (-2.8%) and Westgold Resources (-2.5%) among the hardest hit as the spot prices dropped over night.
Australian shares to open higher as Nvidia tops estimates
The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to open higher, boosted by better-than-expected first-quarter results by megacap Nvidia, after Wall Street stocks fell overnight.
The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 13 points or 0.15% at 8,430 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.58%, S&P 500 down 0.56%, and Nasdaq down 0.51%
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.49%, DAX down 0.78%, and FTSE 100 down 0.59%
- Spot gold: flat at USD3,287.69 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent flat at USD64.31/bbl, and US WTI up 1.59% to USD61.86/bbl
- AUD: down 0.3% to 64.28 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 0.04% to USD107,297.
The context: US and Europe indices retreated overnight as traders braced for tech giant Nvidia's first-quarter results. However, the chipmaker topped market estimates, sending its shares more than 5% higher in after-hours trading on Wall Street.
Investors also absorbed the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's meeting on 6-7 May, which included comments by central bank officials that they could face "difficult tradeoffs" in coming months, as inflation and unemployment rise.
