The ASX turned positive for the week, erasing two days of falls after Wall Street logged its longest winning run in four years.
The ASX 200 rallied 43 points or 0.8% to 5695 as the local market played catch-up at the end of a strong week for overseas markets. Overnight, the S&P 500 rose 0.56% in the US to claim an eighth straight gain and a sixth straight record close. The win streak was the US benchmark's longest since 2013.
The Australian rally was led by resource stocks, with metals & mining up 1.3%, materials 1% and energy 0.9%. Financials put on 0.9%. Utilities was the only sector to miss the updraft, falling 0.3% after the dollar dipped below 78 US cents overnight. The Aussie was lately buying 77.98 US cents.
Japan's Nikkei gained 0.2%. Trading in China and Hong Kong remained suspended for public holidays. Dow futures were recently off nine points or 0.04%.
Crude oil futures gave back eight cents or 0.16% this morning to US$50.71 a barrel. Gold futures retreated $1.60 or 0.13% to US$1,271.60 an ounce.
Trading: sluggish end to the week. Scraped a couple of pips out of VAL. Took a thin profit on 3DP from yesterday.
