A round of well-received profit reports and a record high on Wall Street on Friday helped push the ASX to a four-week peak and a possible fifth straight rise.
At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 39 points or 0.7% ahead at 5760 after touching the index's strongest level since mid-January. Leading the way were the metals & mining sector +2.3%, materials +2.2%, gold +1.6% and energy +1.5%.
The domestic earnings season produced some of the morning's best returns at the big end of the market, including JBH, AZJ, AMC, NCM and DWS. Less well-received were announcements from BEN, ANN. COH and REA.
"The S&P 500 made a new high on Friday, pushing up a touch to close at 2316, so again the view that a market at all time highs is bullish holds true," IG's Chris Weston told Fairfax. "Bulk commodity futures have pushed higher too on the Friday night session, with iron ore futures gaining 4.2%, steel +2% and coking coal +1.9%. Copper has broken out to the upside, thanks to the ongoing strike at BHP's Chile mine, Escondida."
China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.51%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.38% and Japan's Nikkei 0.55%. Dow futures rallied 17 points or 0.08%.
Crude oil futures reversed 13 cents or 0.24% this morning to US$53.73 a barrel. Gold futures dipped $3 or 0.24% to US$1,232.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.71 US cents.
XJO looks keen to retest 5800. Earnings season is producing the usual mixed bag, but no obvious red-flag trends that I can see. Trading: quite a relaxing start to the week - couple of pips from KOR, bit less from AQI.
