A promise from US President Donald Trump to push for interest rate cuts kept US equities near record highs overnight, which had a positive impact on the Australian market today (24 January).
The S&P/ASX 200 lifted out of the red to climb 29.10 points, or 0.35%, to 8,407.8 points as of 10.30 AEDT.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 1.17% and is currently 1.25% off its 52-week high.
Seven of the 11 sectors edged higher at the final opening bell of the week.
Materials was the best performing sector in early trade gaining 0.23% and rebounding from its recent decline, but still behind 1.14% over the past five days. Industrials inched up 0.05% and utilities was up 0.03%.
On the S&P/ASX 200, diversified miner IGO (ASX:IGO) rose 2.3% to $5.33 after announcing that the company and joint venture partner Tianqi Lithium had agreed to halt works on the lithium hydroxide plant 2 at the Kwinana Lithium Hydroxide Refinery.
IGO is completing its impairment testing process with respect to the Kwinana Refinery and expects to book a “substantial pretax impairment” in its financial results for the half year ended 31 December 2024.
The bottom five were all miners, with coal miner Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) leading the way down with a 3.52% dip to $0.685.
Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX) dropped 3.27% to $2.66, fellow gold producer Vault Minerals (ASX:VAU) retreated 2.63% to $0.37, aluminium major Alcoa (ASX:AAI) tumbled 2.38% to $59.79 and uranium play Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) was off 2.07% at $9.01.
Despite Trump’s promise to push for rate cuts, ANZ Head of G3 Economics says the expectation is that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hold at its 26-27 January meeting.
“The hurdle for the FOMC to cut interest rates has risen following the 100bp of cuts in the target federal funds rate (FFR) since September last year,” he says.
“The economy is starting 2025 with strong momentum, employment growth is robust and the decline in annual rates of inflation has slowed. There is therefore no need to urgently cut interest rates.”
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 ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: iStock
