Good morning traders. Thanks @ttward, @Ravgnome & the aftermarket loungers. After a pretty rubbish Monday, US markets have almost clawed back their loses to where last week ended after a solid few days of gains.

ASX Market Report

The Australian share market has recovered from early weakness to finish higher, with every sector rising except banking as Westpac traded ex-dividend.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index hit its highest level in the final minutes of trade to close up 43.6 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 6,327.8 points at 1615 AEST on Thursday. The broader All Ordinaries was up 46.6 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 6,417.5.

The energy sector was the biggest gainer, up 2.2 per cent, as oil prices rose amid tensions in the Middle East. Origin Energy gained four per cent to $7.74, Woodside Petroleum was up 1.6 per cent to $36.77, Santos gained 2.1 per cent to $7.28 and Oil Search was up 2.3 per cent to $7.64.

Tech shares were the second biggest gainer, up 1.57 per cent, with Xero hitting an all time high of $60.15 - up $5.84, or 10.75 per cent - after the New Zealand cloud-based accounting platform cut its underlying full-year loss by 63 per cent and grew its subscriber base by 31 per cent.

The mining sector was up 1.1 per cent as a whole, with BHP up 0.9 per cent to $37.54, South32 up 1.73 to $3.52 and Rio Tinto up one per cent to $99.28. Fortescue Metals gained 3.2 per cent to $8.40, its highest level since 2008.

The big four banks were mixed. Commonwealth Bank gained 1.1 per cent to $73.33 and ANZ gained 1.4 per cent to $26.66, while NAB fell 0.33 per cent to $24.20 and Westpac fell 3.87 per cent to $25.85 as it went ex-dividend.

CSR was up 0.3 per cent to $3.37 after the construction materials company named Julie Coates its new chief executive and managing director.

Blackmores was down 1.54 per cent to $88.10 after the supplement maker announced its managing director for Australia and New Zealand was leaving for skincare manufacturer BWX.

BWX shares slumped 15 per cent to $1.70 after announcing a global restructure along with David Fenton's appointment.

The Australian dollar dropped from 69.30 US cents on Wednesday to 69.13 US cents on Thursday after official data showed the country's unemployment rate rose in April, adding pressure on the Reserve Bank to deliver a rate cut.

Nick Twidale, chief operating officer with Rakuten Securities, said despite Thursday's gains, traders were still skittish about the US-China trade talks and the possibility the trade war would heat up. "It really will affect global growth," he said.

Those global concerns outweigh anything to do with Australia's economy, an interest rate cut or Saturday's federal election, Mr Twidale said, although he didn't discount the possibility of a relief rally if the Liberals manage to hold power. But the nature of Australia's economy is that its market can get "pushed around," with global issues weighing more than domestic concerns, he said. "That's just natural with a commodity-exporting country."

ON THE ASX:

* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 43.6 points, or 0.71 per cent, to 6,284.2 points at 1630 AEST on Thursday.

* The All Ordinaries was up 46.6 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 6,417.5.

* At 1630 AEST, the SPI200 futures index was up 58 points, or 0.92 per cent, at 6,345.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEST:

One Australian dollar buys:

* 69.13 US cents, from 69.30 US cents on Wednesday

* 75.69 Japanese yen, from 76.01 yen

* 61.67 euro cents, from 61.83 euro cents

* 53.83 British pence, from 53.68 pence

* 105.43 NZ cents, from 105.54 cents

Global Markets Report

World stock markets were buoyed by deal-making news and solid earnings from Dow components Cisco and Walmart on Thursday while strong economic data pushed U.S. bond yields higher even as investors struggled to make sense of the latest developments in global trade relations.

A spike in U.S.-China tensions over import tariffs has convulsed markets recently as investors seek to parse statements from government leaders to gauge the direction of negotiations. News that U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to delay auto tariffs appeared to improve the trade tone on Wednesday, but later in the day the Trump administration hit Chinese telecoms giant Huawei with severe sanctions. “The overall market sentiment got pretty negative the last couple of days,” said Keith Lerner, chief market strategist at SunTrust Advisory Services in Atlanta. “And I think it was just a set-up where we had a little bit of good news that has gone a long way, at least for today. “It makes sense that you are having a little bit of reprieve today based on a little better economic data and a little bit better earnings data which is drawing the attention away from China, which is still a big uncertainty right now,” Lerner said.

Wall Street’s main indexes ended solidly positive but below their session highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 214.66 points, or 0.84%, to 25,862.68, the S&P 500 gained 25.36 points, or 0.89%, to 2,876.32 and the Nasdaq Composite added 75.90 points, or 0.97%, to 7,898.05. The Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 1.7% following the Huawei news. Shares of Cisco Systems and Walmart both gave boosts to the S&P 500 and the Dow after their respective earnings reports. Cisco shares rose 6.7% and Walmart rose 1.4%.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.27%. Germany’s DAX jumped 1.7%, fueled by news of corporate deals. Thyssenkrupp shares rose 9.4% after Reuters reported Finnish company Kone is assessing a bid for the German conglomerate’s elevators division. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.58%.

U.S. homebuilding increased more than expected in April and activity in the prior month was stronger than initially thought. In a separate report, the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week.

U.S. Treasury yields rose following the strong economic data. Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 6/32 in price to yield 2.398%, from 2.379% late on Wednesday. “I’m a little surprised that with stocks so strong, the yields aren’t even higher because this doesn’t seem to be that big of a move in the scheme of things,” said Lou Brien, market strategist at DRW Trading.

The U.S. dollar rose against a basket of currencies as investors focused on trade war tensions, while the euro was hurt by concerns about next week’s European parliamentary elections. The dollar index rose 0.26%, with the euro down 0.21% to $1.1176.

Oil prices jumped as tensions in the Middle East grew, with a Saudi-led coalition launching air strikes in Yemen in retaliation for recent attacks on its crude infrastructure. U.S. crude rose 1.4% to settle at $62.87 a barrel, while Brent settled at $72.62 a barrel, up 1.2%.

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Sad news overnight about Bob Hawke, whatever your political persuasion, he certainly was a real character. Here’s some moving tributes from those that knew him far better than I. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-17/bob-hawke-praised-by-both-sides-of-politics-live-blog/11121964