Australian shares climb as miners offset banking slump, Digi Mart USA News (Australia): Australia’s sharemarket climbed after strong performances from mining and energy stocks helped counterbalance broader weakness.
The S&P/ASX200 recovered from an early dip to gain 8.9 points on Monday, up 0.1 per cent, to 9029.7, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 0.2 per cent to 9163.4. Miners provided most of the session’s upward momentum as gold and copper prices rebounded, while a slump in banking stocks led seven of 11 local sectors into the red.
ANZ shares slid 3.2 per cent despite beating consensus expectations after the bank reported a 31 per cent jump in cash profit to $7.6 billion for the year to September, driven by lower bad debts and better cost control than expected. The bank’s previous year result was dragged down by charges from a cost-cutting drive.
ANZ said that if these “significant items” were excluded, its cash profits for the year rose 10 per cent.
Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and National Australia Bank all ended the day lower. NAB announced its next chair would be Ian Saines, a former CBA banker who had also been a director of Macquarie Bank.
Saines will replace outgoing NAB chair Phil Chronican.
Mining stocks moved in the opposite direction. BHP added 2.74 per cent, Rio Tinto rose 1.55 per cent and Fortescue gained 0.66 per cent.
Gold miner Evolution Mining jumped 4.8 per cent and rival Northern Star climbed 0.78 per cent.
Oil prices dipped in early Asian trade, with Brent crude 0.6 per cent lower at US$97.72. Woodside Energy’s shares slipped marginally by day’s end, Santos made a small gain, and Ampol finished slightly lower.
The Australian dollar was buying 68.93 US cents, up slightly from 68.87 US cents at 5pm AEDT on Friday.
On Friday on Wall Street, AI stocks bounced back and recovered some of their selloff after a whirlwind few days of trading as investors tried to assess what this week’s sweeping Democratic victories in the US midterm elections would mean for the economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent and trimmed its weekly loss to 2.7 per cent, its worst week since President Donald Trump shook markets in April 2025 with his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 237 points, or 0.5 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.1 per cent.
The relative steadiness on Wall Street halted a worldwide tumble in stocks. Indexes dropped 6 per cent in Tokyo and in Seoul following the US market’s plunge on Thursday.
European indexes have fewer stocks tied to the artificial-intelligence industry, but Germany’s DAX still lost 1.9 per cent.
Friday’s biggest lift for the S&P 500 came from Nvidia, the chip company that has become the face of the boom and possible bust of the AI frenzy. Its stock climbed 2.8 per cent after drops of 9.3 per cent and 3.2 per cent earlier in the week.
Nvidia and other companies tied to the build-out of AI data centres tumbled this week on worries that Democratic victories in statehouses across the country could slow further construction, particularly in Texas. Voters across party lines say they are wary of AI and dislike increases in power bills caused by data centres.
Those worries added to existing concerns that construction may slow because borrowing has become expensive, and critics had already said AI stock prices had risen too high and were in a bubble.
Political power in Washington will remain split between a Democratic Congress and a White House run by Republican Trump, who retains the power to veto. That could limit federal efforts to rein in the AI industry.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held firmer after sharp drops earlier in the week triggered by tumbling stock prices and hopes that split control of Washington could limit how much more the US government adds to its debt. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.86 per cent from 4.84 per cent late Thursday.
It had topped 5.30 per cent last month when worries about inflation, higher interest rates and rising government debt were spiking.
Yields were supported by a report released Friday morning showing US employers hired many more workers last month than economists expected, a sign the US economy continues to grow despite high inflation. The encouraging data could mean the economy can absorb a slowdown in AI data centre construction, but strong job growth could also push inflation higher.
Following the report, traders saw a greater probability of the Federal Reserve raising its short-term interest rate at its next meeting in December, according to data from CME Group. Rate hikes can rein in inflation but make borrowing more expensive for everyone and slow the overall economy.
A separate report suggested sentiment among US consumers unexpectedly improved. The preliminary report from the University of Michigan said sentiment rose for lower- and middle-wealth Americans but fell for those with the largest stock portfolios.
The survey also suggested expectations for inflation in the coming year eased, which could help prevent a cycle in which expectations of high inflation drive behaviour that worsens inflation.
