The ASX200 is set to rise 1.35% on Friday, boosted by an optimistic performance on the US stock market on the back of employment data which has quelled fears of a recession and brought a rally.
The S&P 500 climbed 2.4% – close to its best performance since January 2023 – during the trading session, while the Nasdaq jumped more than 3% and the Dow Jones rose more than 700 points. Data released overnight revealed that initial jobless claims in the US fell 17,000 – a greater number than expected – for the week ended August 3. This softened concerns about a slowdown in the world’s biggest economy.
Over on the ASX, media giant News Corporation (ASX:NWS) says it has conducted a ‘strategic review’ of pay TV division Foxtel Group – prompted by third party interest – and its looking into its capital structure and assets and ‘assessing strategic and financial options’.
Newscorp said if there was any action or transaction in regard to this – ie, if Foxtel was up for sale – no time had been set for it.
Also this morning, QBE Insurance Group Ltd (ASX:QBE) announced that its profit for the first half of 2024 was double that recorded for the same period last year.
QBE recorded a net profit of $802 million after tax for 1H24, a rise from $400 million in 1H23.
And Equinox Resources Ltd (ASX:EQN) says it is kicking off drilling work at the Mata da Corda REE (rare earth elements) project in Brazil to test the depth of the clay profile in areas where samples of up to 10,110 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO) have been found.
The company has also reported more high-grade surface clay samples from the project, with grades of up to 5,879 ppm.
Many commodities were in the green on the aforementioned rally, with gold and oil both higher. Iron ore is at $101.71 per tonne in Singapore and brent crude is at $78.92 per barrel. Gold is travelling at $2,426 per ounce and US natgas futures read $2.15 per gigajoule – all those prices in USD.
In forex, the AUD is buying nearly 66 US cents.