ASX starts higher as mining and healthcare stocks pace gains
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More news: Australian shares opened higher this morning as miners and healthcare stocks led gains. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 59.8 points, or 0.68%, to 8,905.5 at 10:30am AEST. Six of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
Miners (+1.7%) were the best performers, with gold miners Westgold Resources (+4.5%), Catalyst Metals (+3.7%) and Bellevue Gold (+3.2%) leading gains. Aluminium producer Alcoa Corporation (+4.3%), rare earths miner Lynas (+3.2%) and critical minerals explorer Iluka Resources (+3.1%) were also higher.
Healthcare stocks (+1.3%) also rallied, with biotech giant CSL climbing 2.4%, tracking advances by pharmaceutical companies on Wall Street overnight.
Meanwhile, DroneShield (-11.5%) reversed a large portion of Wednesday's 23% gain.
Australian shares to rise as Wall Street defies shutdown uncertainty
The news: Australian shares are poised to lift at the open after US stocks closed higher overnight, defying weaker-than-expected private payrolls data and uncertainty triggered by the US government shutdown.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 44 points, or 0.49%, to 8,898
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.09%, S&P 500 up 0.34% and Nasdaq up 0.42%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.90%, DAX up 0.98% and FTSE 100 up 1.03%
- Spot gold: up 0.16% to USD3,865 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.91% at USD65.43/bbl and US WTI down 0.89% to USD61.82/bbl
- AUD: up 0.03% to 66.15 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 3.13% to USD117,617.
The context: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose for a fourth straight session as healthcare stocks led gains on Wall Street. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (+6.8%) extended its rally from Tuesday after securing a deal with US President Trump on prescription drug prices.
The advance came despite a report showing a 32,000 decline in private payrolls for September, and a downwardly revised 3,000 decline for August. The figures were weaker than an expected growth of 50,000 in September, and the previous report of a 54,000 advance in August.
Investors also weighed the first federal government shutdown in nearly seven years, which threatens to halt the release of critical economic data relied on by the Federal Reserve to inform rate decisions.
