The share market was poised to end higher for a second week despite a mid-session wobble as US futures reacted negatively to the prospect of fresh US tariffs against China.
The ASX 200 hit the halfway mark of the session ahead 24 points or 0.4% at 5839 after earlier running as high as 5845. Tempering gains was a deterioration in US equity futures following a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration plans to ramp up tariffs on Chinese imports to force further concessions. S&P 500 futures were recently down 8.5 points or 0.32%.
The news took the shine off the first rise in Australian shares in three sessions. The heavyweight metals & mining sector set the place for a third day, rising 1%, supported by IT +1.1%, health +1% and consumer discretionary +1. Gold stocks lost 0.4%, consumer staples 0.1% and utilities 0.1%.
A close around current levels would deliver a return of roughly 50 points for a choppy week overshadowed by geopolitical tensions over Syria and threats of a trade war.
"Market sentiment remains at the mercy of political rhetoric and... the theme from the overnight session is that there are encouraging signs of an ease in tensions in Syria along with improved prospects for resolutions in trade tensions," Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign exchange strategist at National Australia Bank, told CNBC prior to the publication of the Wall Street Journal story.
Asian markets pared gains with US futures. China's Shanghai Composite was lately down 0.04%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.05% and Japan's Nikkei ahead 0.51%.
Crude oil futures pulled back 20 cents or 0.3% this morning to US$66.87 a barrel. Gold futures bounced $1.40 or 0.1% to US$1,343.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.7 US cents.
Been a soft end to the week in terms of trading opportunities. I scored a late win yesterday and need the same today. No trades so far. Closest I came was RFN - set a buy order at 1.8c, looked away for a moment and suddenly the price was 2.4c. Argh. Bring on the weekend.
