Financial stocks were also stronger, with Morgan Stanley telling clients it was optimistic the big bank shares would continue to trade on high earnings multiples thanks to a favourable operating environment, “low earnings risk and healthy balance sheets”. Commonwealth Bank – the biggest stock on the bourse – rose 1.7 per cent, having interrupted its share rally this year during the September quarter, when it lost 8.3 per cent. Its big four rivals ANZ (up 2 per cent), Westpac (up 1.2 per cent) and National Australia Bank (up 0.9 per cent) also posted solid gains.
Healthcare stocks jumped as biotech giant CSL rallied 3.7 per cent, tracking the sector’s gains on Wall Street. Energy stocks climbed. Woodside Energy was up 0.7 per cent and Santos added 1 per cent.
The laggards
News Corp shares fell 5.6 per cent. It’s been a rocky year for the Murdoch-controlled company on the ASX, which now it finds itself back to where it was trading at the start of the year, at around $49 a share.
Meanwhile, ARN Media – owner of the KIIS Network – fell 1 per cent. Former Nine executive Michael Stephenson will become its next chief executive in January, with long-term boss Ciaran Davis to step down. ARN was slammed by the media watchdog on Wednesday over obscene and offensive content in The Kyle and Jackie O Show.
In the broad-based market rally, only utilities, consumer staples and communication services finished flat or slightly lower, with stocks including power companies Origin (down 0.2 per cent ) and AGL (down 0.5 per cent), supermarket giant Coles (down 0.6 per cent) and News Corp-controlled property listings business REA Group (down 1.9 per cent) holding those sectors back.
The lowdown
Gold miners paced gains on the local market once again on Thursday, and analysts reckon the golden run is set to continue.
Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, long bullish on gold, now sees room for the precious metal to rally even higher as private investors have started wading in. Surprisingly strong inflows to bullion-backed exchange-traded funds have exceeded their previous model, Goldies analysts wrote in a note to clients. The potential for private investors to pile significantly into gold presents a “large upside risk” to their forecast of $US4000 per ounce for mid-2026 and $US4300 per ounce for the end of next year.
The bank said a month ago that gold could approach $US5000 an ounce were it to see inflows from just 1 per cent of the privately owned US Treasury market.
Gold traded near $US3,860 an ounce on Thursday, with the US government shutdown threatening to create a blackout in crucial economic figures that the Federal Reserve needs to make rate decisions. Traders have added to bets the Fed will cut rates twice more this year to support a weakening labour market. Lower borrowing costs tend to boost non-yielding gold, which also becomes cheaper for most buyers when the greenback softens.
Loading
The precious metal has soared 47 per cent this year, putting it on track for the biggest annual gain since 1979.
On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent to top its prior all-time high, which was set last week. The Dow Jones added 0.1 per cent to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 per cent.
Tesla rose 3.3 per cent ahead of the company’s latest trading update. The company likely delivered around 439,600 vehicles worldwide in the three months that ended in September, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, offering investors a measure of relief amid a lengthy downturn.
The share jump pushed Musk’s personal wealth over the $US500 billion ($756 billion) mark, according to Forbes, making him the first person to ever reach the milestone.
Nike rose 6.4 per cent after blowing past analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. The athletic giant reported strong growth for apparel sold in North America.
Treasury yields dropped after a report suggested hiring in the world’s largest economy may have been much weaker across the country last month than economists expected.
Usually, traders on Wall Street wait for a more comprehensive jobs report from the government each month to suss out how the job market is doing. But the next Labor Department report, scheduled for Friday, is likely to be delayed because of the government shutdown.
