Australian shares have risen slightly higher on Thursday, boosted by a rebound in the heavyweight mining sector after sharp declines in the prior session, while investors digested the US Federal Reserve's firm hawkish stance on taming inflationary pressures.

The ASX 200 closed up 54 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 6,648, with the materials sector leading the gains.

The Australian dollar was up at 68.16 US cents by 04:19pm AEST. 

Miners advanced 2.6 per cent after a massive 5.6 per cent drop in the previous session, as weak commodity prices led to a sharp sell-off in iron ore giants. 

Shares of BHP Group (+3.1pc), Rio Tinto (+4.1pc) and Fortescue Metals Group (+4.4pc) rallied on Thursday.

As China iron ore futures gained on Wednesday, the Australian mining triumvirate gained between 2 per cent and 3 per cent on Thursday, with Rio Tinto marking its biggest intraday jump since late April.

Financials were up 0.9 per sent, with all the top lenders eking out small gains.

Energy stocks were flat as Brent crude slumped to a 12-week low upon fears of a global recession.

By 04:24pm AEST, Brent crude oil was down, trading at just above $US100 a barrel.

Sector major Woodside Energy gained 0.3 per cent, while Santos slipped as much as 1.7 per cent.

Gold shares were down 0.4 per cent, as appeal for the precious metal dampened following a strong US dollar, with Newcrest Mining up 0.8 per cent.

Imugege (+9.1pc), Chalice Mining (+6.7pc), Link Administration (+6.3pc) and Inghams Group (+5.8pc) were among the top movers.

However, tech companies like EML payments (-9.9pc) and Zip (-5.2pc) were among the biggest drags on the benchmark index.

Crown CEO stepping down

Casino operator Crown Resorts on Thursday named operations head of Wynn Macau, Ciarán Carruthers, as its chief executive officer, replacing Steve McCann weeks after its $8.9-billion takeover by private equity company Blackstone.

Mr McCann, after taking over the top job in June last year, had led the company through a tough time when its licenses were suspended or put under supervision after probes in three Australian states amid claims of shirking anti-money laundering rules and dysfunctional governance.

He also oversaw its flagship Sydney casino win back its gaming license after a years-long money-laundering scandal, as well as the company's sale to Blackstone which concluded last month.

Mr McCann will step down from his role in September, the company said.

"Blackstone is committed to investing in Crown. Part of that involves bringing in global expertise to complement the existing skills within the business," said Chris Tynan, Blackstone's head of real estate Australia.

Crown also appointed Bill McBeath as chairman of the board, former Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti as chair of its Sydney business and John van der Wielen as chairman of its Perth operations.

Wall Street higher on Fed's indication

Wall Street put a seesaw day behind it to close higher on Wednesday, as investors digested new clues on the US central bank's approach to rate policy and its inflation fight detailed in the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting.

After a brutal sell-off in global equity markets in the first half of the year, nervous investors are keeping a close watch on central bank actions as they try to assess the impact of aggressive rate hikes on global growth.

They got their latest data point on Wednesday afternoon when the minutes of the June 14-15 policy meeting detailed how the US central bank was prompted to make an outsized interest rate increase.

The minutes were a firm restatement of the Fed's intent to get prices under control to address stubborn inflation and concern about lost faith in the central bank's power.

The 0.75 percentage-point rate increase which came out of the meeting was the first of that size since 1994.

According to the minutes, participants judged that an increase of 50 or 75 basis points (0.5 or 0.75 of a percentage point) would likely be appropriate at the policy meeting later this month.

Prior to the minutes' publication, investors had been pricing in another 75-basis-point rate increase at the upcoming July 26-27 gathering, meaning the fact that both 50 basis points and 75 basis points remained on the table pointed toward the Fed acknowledging the impact of its rate rises on the economy.

The minutes reflected participants' concerns about rate increases having the potential for a "larger-than-anticipated" impact on economic growth.

"I think people are heavily focused on the terminal rate of what the Federal Reserve's increases are, and the 50-75 debate just points towards where you end up," said Jason Pride, chief investment officer of private wealth at Glenmede.

He noted that a 50 basis-point hike would point toward a terminal rate of 3 per cent, while 75 basis points indicated a peak of 3.25 per cent or 3.5 per cent.

At 3.5 per cent or above, the likelihood of recession is about 50 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 69.86 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 31,037.68, the S&P 500 gained 13.69 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 3,845.08 and the Nasdaq Composite added 39.61 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 11,361.85.

The S&P 500 posted 2 new 52-week highs and 29 new lows: the Nasdaq Composite recorded 20 new highs and 109 new lows.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 45 nations, was down 0.5 per cent.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 1.7 per cent.