ASX opens higher driven by a rally in Mesoblast and Codan
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More news: Australian shares opened higher with energy stocks leading early gains across the ASX 200.
The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 13.3 points, or 0.15% to 8,734 at 10:35am AEDT. Ten of the 11 sectorial indices opened in the green.
Codan (+19.8%) was the top performer at the open after it expects to report a 52% jump in underlying net profit after tax for the first-half period.
Mesoblast (+9.83%) also rallied after reporting a 60% increase in quarterly revenue to US$35.1 million ($52.4 million), driven by sales of its cell therapy Ryoncil.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto (-5.67%) fell following reports it restarted talks with Glencore over a potential merger to create the world's largest mining company.
The financials sector (-0.36%) was the worst performer across the ASX 200, dragged lower by Westpac (-0.11%), NAB (-0.12%), ANZ (0.14%) and Macquarie Group (-0.37%)
China's inflation and production data is due to be released at 12:30pm AEDT today.
Australian shares to open higher as Wall Street takes profit on tech
The news: Australian shares are set to open higher as Wall Street traded mixed overnight following profit-taking in megacap tech stocks as investors weighed concerns that AI-related valuations have been inflated by outsized gains in recent years.
US defence stocks were among the biggest gainers overnight after Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account that the 2027 US military budget should be USD1.5 trillion ($2.24 trillion), well above the USD901 billion ($1.34 trillion) approved by Congress for 2026.
The numbers: Updated at 7:39am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 32 points, or 0.36% to 8,756.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.60%, S&P 500 down 0.07% and Nasdaq down 0.43%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.12%, DAX up 0.02% and FTSE 100 down 0.04%.
- Spot gold: up 0.38% to USD4,473 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent up 4.57% to USD62.79/bbl and US WTI up 4.59% to USD58.53/bbl.
- AUD: down 0.35% at 66.96 US cents.
- Bitcoin: down 0.64% to USD90,729.
The context: Stocks on Wall Street were mixed overnight as megacap tech stocks including Nvidia, Broadcom and Microsoft fell as traders locked in profits from the artificial intelligence trade. Defence stocks rallied, offsetting some of the declines from the prior session after Donald Trump threatened to block US defence companies from paying dividends or buying back shares until they boost weapons production.
On the data front, US Bureau of Economic Analysis data showed the US trade deficit shrank to USD29.4 billion ($43.99 billion) in October, the narrowest gap since June 2009.
Elsewhere, China’s inflation and production data are due to be released at 12:30pm AEDT.
