ASX climbs at the open as Light & Wonder rockets on legal settlement
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
More news: Australian shares opened higher with consumer discretionary and energy stocks leading early gains across the ASX.
The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 46.7 points, or 0.54% to 8,764 at 10:25am AEDT. Ten of the 11 sectorial indices opened in the green.
Light & Wonder (+21.28%) was the top performer at the open after it had agreed to pay Aristocrat Leisure (+0.73%) $190 million to settle litigation in Australia and the US following claims of misappropriation and infringement of intellectual property.
Super Retail Group (-5.18%) was the worst performing stock across the ASX 200 as investors digested its FY26 trading update.
Communication services (-0.18%) was the only sector in the red at the open, dragged lower by Telstra (-0.52%), Seek (-0.13%) and CAR Group (-0.10%).
ABS's monthly household spending indicator data for November 2025 is due to be released at 11:30am AEDT today.
Australian shares to open higher as Wall Street notches another record close
The news: Australian shares are set to open higher after the S&P 500 rallied to a record close on Friday, lifted by gains in Broadcom and other chipmakers. Meanwhile, a weaker-than-expected US jobs report did little to change expectations for interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve this year.
So far, Wall Street’s three main indices have all posted strong gains in the first full week of trading in 2026, driven by materials, industrials and technology stocks.
The numbers: Updated at 7:35am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 31 points, or 0.35% to 8,742.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.48%, S&P 500 up 0.65% and the Nasdaq up 0.81%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 1.44%, DAX up 0.53% and FTSE 100 up 0.80%.
- Spot gold: up 0.72% to USD4,510 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent up 2.18% to USD63.34/bbl and US WTI up 2.35% to USD59.12/bbl.
- AUD: down 0.17% at 66.88 US cents.
- Bitcoin: up 0.14% to USD90,505.
The context: The S&P 500 notched a record high close on Friday New York time, with chipmakers including Lam Research, Broadcom, Intel and Alphabet lifting the index.
On the data front, US Labor Department figures showed employment growth slowed more than expected in December, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, suggesting the labour market is not deteriorating rapidly. Economists now expect the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at its January 27–28 meeting.
Elsewhere locally, the ABS is set to release the monthly household indicator for November 2024 at 11:30am AEDT.
The source: Reuters
