Origin Energy continued its positive gains, up 1.6 per cent on Thursday, following a fruitful day on Wednesday where the company climbed 6.6 per cent.

Loading

The electricity and gas heavyweight has been booming after the North American consortium behind an $18.4 billion takeover offer for the company informed the company it has not identified “adverse matters” that could derail its bid, despite market concerns about the east coast gas price caps.

Materials suffered a bit on the index, and gold miner’s shares fell, with Evolution down 1.6 per cent and Newcrest similarly sliding 1.1 per cent.

BHP and Oz Minerals (OZL) announced that they have entered into a scheme implementation deed as part of the mining giant’s 100 per cent acquisition of OZL, by way of an arrangement for a cash price of $28.25 per OZL share.

BHP has been given another week to finalise the terms which were due to expire this week.

OZL shareholders will vote on the agreed $9.6 billion enterprise value takeover in late March or early April 2023. BHP closed marginally lower on Thursday morning, down 0.2 per cent, with OZL up just 0.07 per cent.

Health imaging IT provider Pro Medicus also traded in the green, up 3.9 per cent after announcing that its wholly owned US subsidiary, Visage Imaging, has signed a $15 million 7-year contract with Luminis Health.

In the US, consumer confidence rose to an eight-month high in December as inflation retreated, and the labor market remained strong while 12-month inflation expectations fell to 6.7 per cent, the lowest since September 2021.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 56.44 points, or 1.48 per cent, to end at 3,878.68 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 159.65 points, or 1.51 per cent, to 10,706.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 522.07 points, or 1.59 per cent, to 33,371.81.

Loading

“At the macro level you have economic weakness but at the micro level you have companies that are resilient and delivering positive expectations from an earnings perspective,” said Brian Price, head of investment management for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Mass. “That combination is going to be positive.”

Fears of a recession following the US central bank’s prolonged interest rate hikes have weighed heavily on equities and these fears have put the S&P on track for its biggest annual decline since 2008 and a decline for December.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty and we’re likely to see a lot of volatility early in the year as we could be in a mild recessionary environment,” said Edward Jones’ Kourkafas, but he believes the market has already priced in a weaker economy.

Tweet of the day:

Quote of the day:

“The Bahamas has determined that the provisional arrest, and subsequent written consent by (Bankman-Fried) to be extradited without formal extradition proceedings satisfies the requirements of the (extradition treaty between the US and the Bahamas) and our nation’s Extradition Act,” said Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder, in a statement.

You may have missed:

Luxury fashion label The Daily Edited has been rescued by the owner of accessories chain Colette by Colette Hayman, keeping 35 employees in jobs over Christmas.