The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) opened Friday (9 August) on a high note after positive jobless data eased concerns that the US is heading for a recession.
The S&P/ASX200 rallied 50.20 points to 7,732.20 as of 10:20 AEST.
In New York, the S&P 500 witnessed its biggest rally since November 2022, while the US VIX (volatility index – also known as the ‘fear’ index) retreated nearly 15%.
Weekly jobless claims witnessed the largest drop in around 11 months, falling to a seasonally adjusted 233,000 for the week. Economists had been anticipating jobless claims would be around 240,000.
This set Australian stocks up for a positive end to the week.
Interestingly, the ASX (ASX:ASX) listed entity itself was up 2.2% along with AMP (ASX:AMP), which rose 13.3%, and audio visual firm Audinate Group (ASX:AD8), which added 5.7% in early trade.
The bottom performing stocks include gold producer West African Resources (ASX:WAF), which slid 10.8%, uranium explorer Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) with a 5.6% decline, and Africa-focused gold producer Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU), which retreated 4.9%.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) by float-adjusted market capitalisation
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
The index has lost 2.66% for the last five days, but has gained 1.86% over the last year to date.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Stock
