The Australian sharemarket has jumped higher in early trade on the back of a relief rally on Wall Street on Friday.
The Australian sharemarket has jumped higher in early trade on the back of a relief rally on Wall Street on Friday.
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By Staff writers
Updated March 17, 2025 — 9.44amfirst published at 4.20am
The Australian sharemarket has jumped higher in early trade on the back of a relief rally on Wall Street on Friday.
The ASX was up 62 points or 0.8 per cent at 10.30am AEDT, with all 11 industry sectors in the green, led by the technology and energy sectors.
The miners jumped after iron ore prices strengthened. Fortescue jumped by 1.9 per cent in early trade, while Rio Tinto added 1.2 per cent and BHP advanced 0.8 per cent.
The big four banks are stronger across the board, led by CBA’s 1.3 per cent gain. ANZ and Westpac both rose by 0.8 per cent while ANZ edged up 0.2 per cent.
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A rise in oil prices boosted energy shares, with Woodside adding 1.6 per cent while Ampol rose 1.5 per cent. Santos was 0.5 per cent higher.
Tech shares advanced after a broad rally on Wall Street’s Nasdaq index. Xero was up 2 per cent in early trade while WiseTech added 1.6 per cent.
National Australia Bank announced two senior executives would depart the lender, with finance chief Nathan Goonan moving to Westpac and head of business banking Rachel Slade stepping down. Slade, who has been at NAB since 2017 and was seen as a contender to be CEO before the board opted for current chief Andrew Irvine, is leaving the bank in July.
Irvine also announced a new head of business and private banking to replace Slade: Andrew Auerbach, a Canadian bank executive who is currently chief executive of co-founder of Delisle Advisory Group. He previously spent more than two decades with BMO, a major Canadian bank.
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US stocks rallied to their best day in months on Friday as Wall Street’s rollercoaster suddenly shot back upward. That still wasn’t enough to keep the US market from a fourth straight losing week, its longest such streak since August.
The S&P 500 jumped 2.1 per cent a day after closing more than 10 per cent below its record for its first “correction” since 2023. The last time the index shot up that much was the day after President Donald Trump’s election, when Wall Street was focusing on the upsides of Trump’s return to the White House.
A multi-day “relief rally could be coming” after so much negativity built among investors, said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management. Swings in sentiment don’t go full-tilt in just one direction forever, and the US stock market has been tumbling quickly since setting a record less than a month ago.
One piece of uncertainty hanging over Wall Street may be clearing after the Senate made moves to prevent a possible partial shutdown of the US government.
Past shutdowns have not been a huge deal for financial markets. But any reduction of uncertainty can be helpful when so much of it has been sending the US stock market on big, scary swings not just day to day but also hour to hour.
To be sure, the heaviest uncertainty remains with Trump’s escalating trade war.
While stock prices may be close to finishing their reset to account for tariffs set to hit in April, Ma said concerns about how big an impact cutbacks in federal spending will have on the economy are “likely to remain for some time.”
US households and businesses have already reported drops in confidence because of all the uncertainties created by Trump’s barrage of on -again, off -again tariff announcements and other policies. That’s raised fears about a pullback in spending that could sap energy from the economy.
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Worries look to be only worsening among US households, according to a preliminary survey released Friday by the University of Michigan. Its measure of consumer sentiment sank for a third straight month, mostly because of concerns about the future rather than complaints about the present. The job market and overall economy look relatively solid at the moment.
Gains for Big Tech stocks and companies in the artificial-intelligence industry also helped support the market. Such stocks have been under the most pressure in the recent sell-off after critics said their prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI.
Nvidia rose 5.3 per cent to trim its loss for 2025 so far below 10 per cent. Apple climbed 1.8 per cent to pare its loss for the week, which at one point had been on pace to be its worst since the 2020 COVID crash.
With AP
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