Meanwhile, IT stocks posted the biggest gain of all the ASX sectors, up 3.2 per cent. Sentiment was boosted by the Nasdaq’s rise overnight as well as local winners such as Technology One, which soared 11.6 per cent after posting a 15 per cent increase in net profit to $118 million. Embattled software firm WiseTech rose 2.8 per cent and Xero jumped 3 per cent.
Gains in the industrial sector were led by testing and laboratory services provider ALS, which posted a 14 per cent increase in half-year revenue to $1.46 billion earlier this week. ALS shares rose 3.5 per cent, while toll road operator Transurban (1.9 per cent) and Qantas (1.1 per cent) also advanced.
However, a weak morning for the mining heavyweights limited the ASX’s overall advance, with BHP - the world’s largest miner - 0.2 per cent softer and its smaller iron ore rivals Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals down 0.7 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. South32 lost 1.7 per cent.
On Wall Street overnight, most US stocks ticked higher to recover some of their sharp slide from last week as Treasuries halted a selloff that drove 10-year yields near 4.5 per cent. Traders were also closely watching news around President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
Liberty Energy helped pull the US market upward after rising 4.9 per cent. President-elect Donald Trump named its CEO Chris Wright as his Secretary of Energy.
Trading of Spirit Airlines’ stock, meanwhile, was halted after the budget carrier reached an agreement with its debtholders to take it through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The airline will continue to fly while it restructures, but will likely wipe out the holdings of all its stock investors.
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Stocks regained some momentum after giving back more than half their post-election gains at the end of last week. Investors had sent the S&P 500 nearly 4 per cent higher in the days immediately following Trump’s victory. Bank stocks, smaller companies and other areas of the market were seen as the biggest winners from Trump’s preference for lower tax rates, higher tariffs and lighter regulation.
More recently, though, investors have braced for some of the potential downsides of Trump’s agenda. Moderna rose 7.2 per cent overnight but is still down since word came out that Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Worries about potentially higher inflation under Trump have also sent Treasury yields upward. That could tie the Federal Reserve’s hands, when the central bank is trying to lower interest rates to ease the brakes off the economy and keep the job market humming.
While lower rates can give a boost to growth, they can also add fuel for inflation.
“Traders appear to be gauging the potential impact of a new Trump administration’s policies on the economy, and the possibility that the Fed may slow down its rate-cutting campaign,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.
Higher rates and yields in turn mean more pressure on companies to deliver bigger profits to make their stock prices look less expensive. Their stock prices have already run up much faster than their earnings. Treasury yields edged lower overnight, which helped keep things calmer in the stock market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.41 per cent from 4.45 per cent late on Friday.
Several big-name companies will be reporting their latest quarterly results this week, including market heavyweight Nvidia on Wednesday. The chip company has grown into one of Wall Street’s most influential, with a total market value of nearly $US3.5 trillion ($5.4 trillion), after becoming the poster child of the rush into artificial-intelligence technology.
with Bloomberg and AP