The Australian share market follows Wall Street up, while oil prices continue to fall on fears of a global economic slowdown.
We brought you the latest on what was happening on the markets throughout the day in our live blog.
Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
Key events
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Live updates
Market snapshot
By Michael Janda
This is where the market finished up at the close of local trade shortly after 4:00pm AEDT.
- ASX 200: Up 0.5 per cent to 7,213
- All Ords: Up 0.5 per cent to 7,406
- Aussie dollar: 67.93 US cents
- NZ 50: Down 0.2 per cent to 11,596
- Nikkei: Up 1.3 per cent to 27,923
- Hang Seng: Up 1.6 per cent to 19,760
- S&P 500 futures: Up 0.2 per cent to 3,974
- Spot gold: Up 0.5 per cent to $US1797.16 an ounce
- Brent crude: Up 0.7 per cent to $US76.71 a barrel
- Bitcoin: up 0.1 per cent to $US17,203.13
ASX rebounds
By Samuel Yang
The Australian share market has closed with moderate gains, led by mining and real estate sectors.
Champion Iron had the biggest gain on the ASX 200 index as iron ore prices were buoyed by easing in China's domestic COVID curbs.
Sandfire Renounces, BrianChip and Megaport were all among the top 10 gainers.
That's all from our live blog today, hopefully you can join us again on Monday for all of next week's market action.
Have a happy and safe weekend!
Westpac: Economy likely to stall in the second half of 2023
By Samuel Yang
Bill Evans, Westpac's chief economist, has written a note about the economic outlook in the next two years.
Here are some key takeaways:
We continue to forecast a slowdown in the growth profile for the Australian economy from 2.6 per cent in 2022 to 1.0 per cent in 2023 and 2.0 per cent in 2024.
Household consumption is forecast to slow from around 2 per cent (6 month annualised) in the first half of 2023 to near zero in the second half. That would see growth through the year of 1.0 per cent.
Through 2023, businesses need to embrace that difficult growth outlook and desist from excessive price increases or out bidding competitors for scarce labour. In general, the prospect of flat growth should convince businesses that large wage increases and rising prices will be unsustainable by the second half of 2023.
Household spending, boosted by a falling savings rate, continues to be the driver of growth largely through the reopening lift from travel; accommodation and hospitality; and motor vehicle purchases.
Some specific drag is apparent in the weak real estate market.
As we move forward, the reopening effect will fade; property weakness will linger; the savings rate will find a floor; and consumer spending growth will continue to slow.
In addition, the drag on incomes from rising interest rates will intensify through 2023 just as we saw the drag lift from $1.4 billion in the June quarter to $4.5 billion in the September quarter.
Aussie miners set for sixth straight weekly gains
By Samuel Yang
(Hello, I'm back! Shout out to my colleague Michael Janda for stepping into the blog for the past few hours.)
Australian miners are on track to clock sixth straight weekly gain, advancing more than 1.6 per cent this week to hover near their six-month highs.
The recent gains buoyed by easing in China's domestic COVID curbs, spurring prices of base and precious metals as commodity demand outlook improves.
Iron ore futures are up nearly 25 per cent since early November and are up more than 2 per cent so far this month.
Base metals like copper and nickel have also risen 3.7 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively, since the start of the month when reports emerged of China easing virus curbs in some cities
The mining sub-index was up as much as 1.7 per cent for the day.
Which suburbs had the biggest COVID real estate booms?
By Michael Janda
CoreLogic has crunched the numbers on which suburbs within Australia's capital cities had the biggest increase in property prices since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But much of the gains may not last.
CoreLogic's Eliza Owen expects most markets will likely shift into a downswing over the next 12 months.
"Even those that have been relatively resilient to date," she says.
"I don't think many markets can escape impact from the sharp rise in the cash rate we've seen in the second half of 2022."
More from the ABC's Dinah Lewis Boucher.
Cryptocurrency broker Digital Surge enters administration
By Michael Janda
KordaMentha have been appointed administrators for cryptocurrency broker Digital Surge, after the Australian firm was caught up in the fallout of the FTX collapse.
Kamal Jain has all of his superannuation – more than $150,000 – sitting frozen in a Digital Surge account.
"I lost everything," he said.
"It's a big setback and there's nothing I can do."
ABC business reporter Emilia Terzon has been speaking with other investors concerned that they might lose all their cryptocurrency savings parked with the company.
Star fined $100m by Queensland regulator
By Michael Janda
Star Entertainment Group is going to be fined $100 million and have a special administrator appointed to its two Queensland casinos after recently being found unfit to hold a licence.
Queensland's Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman announced the penalties on Friday — two months after she found the gambling giant unsuitable to hold a casino licence in Queensland, following a major report.
"Essentially this means Star has 12 months to get their house in order if they don't want to see a 90-day suspension of their licence," she said.
Queensland state political reporter Kate McKenna with more:
Market gains fade around midday
By Michael Janda
The Australian share market's gains are fading as the trading day wears on.
After earlier being up around 0.5 of a per cent, the benchmark ASX 200 index was up 0.2 of a per cent at 7,186 by 12:20pm AEDT.
The top movers remain dominated by the resources sector, including the big iron ore miners, as optimism about China's economy amid relaxing COVID restrictions builds.
Energy has now joined mining amid the sectors rising.
However, falls for real estate, financials, utilities, healthcare and retailing are weighing on the gains elsewhere.
ACCC wins cartel case against BlueScope
By Michael Janda
From fellow ABC business reporter Dan Ziffer, who has been listening in to the case this morning.
The competition watchdog has won a fight against Australia's biggest steel maker, BlueScope, over fixing and inflating prices.
Justice O'Bryan of the Federal Court found in favour of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which had instituted civil proceedings against BlueScope Steel Limited (BlueScope) and its former general manager sales and marketing, Mr Jason Ellis, for alleged "cartel conduct" in relation to the supply of flat steel products.
Flat steel is an essential material for builders, manufacturers and the automotive industry, so the increased costs have been worn by millions of consumers.
ACCC commissioner Liza Carver flagged the potentially wide-reaching nature of the court result.
"This is an important decision which has the potential to strengthen the ACCC's position in future cases of attempted cartel conduct.
"Cartels not only disadvantage other businesses which are competing lawfully, but can also lead to consumers paying higher prices."
The ACCC is seeking a range of penalties, including a pecuniary penalty — a fine intended to punish the recipient. It also wants Mr Ellis to be disqualified for being able to run companies.
A hearing about penalties is scheduled for April 3, 2023.
BlueScope said it was "disappointed" by the court's decision and would be reviewing the reasons and determining if there are grounds to appeal.
You can read more in Dan's full article:
Bad news again good news for markets
By Michael Janda
Good morning, I'll be stepping into the blog for a couple of hours while Sam is out doing an interview for an upcoming story.
NAB does a very interesting note each morning looking at the overnight market action.
While there wasn't huge action last night in the US, NAB's Tapas Strickland pointed to some interesting economic data.
Jobless claims are rising in the US, especially from those who've been out of work for some time.
As Strickland points out, a rise in jobless claims, especially continuing ones, is often a harbinger of recessions.
Another harbinger of recessions are inverted yield curves, where long-term interest rates are below shorter-term ones.
Strickland points out that the US yield curve remains the most inverted it's been since the early 1980s.
If you look at his graph, you'll see US markets often fall very steeply after the yield curve stops being inverted.
That's probably because that is when the recession is already underway and the Fed has started slashing current interest rates.
The reason the US share market rallied overnight is that rising US jobless claims may mean the Fed will soon ease off from its rate rises as the US economy slows: bad news = good news.
But an end to the rate rise cycle may come about because the US economy is starting to shrink, and that won't be good for company profits or share prices either.
ASX opens up
By Samuel Yang
Australian shares have opened higher on Friday in line with strength in the global markets on hopes that easing of stringent COVID-19 policies in China will restore global supply chains and curb inflation.
The benchmark index gained 29 points or 0.4 per cent, to 7,205 at 10:15am AEDT.
Mining (+1.1 per cent) and education (+0.6 per cent) sectors were leading the gains.
Here are some of the top and bottom movers at open.
PM urges national cabinet to endorse coal and gas price cap
By Samuel Yang
The national cabinet will meet today to talk about energy prices.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to use the meeting to strike a deal with the states and territories to curb skyrocketing energy prices.
But time is running out for the federal government to unveil the details of its proposed market intervention before its Christmas deadline.
For more details, click through to read the story by political reporter Stephanie Dalzell.
US Fed expected to hike rates by 50bp next week
By Samuel Yang
The producer price index and the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey on Friday and November's consumer price data next week will be in focus ahead of Fed's policy decision on December 14.
Investors see a 93 per cent chance that the US central bank will hike the key benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 4.25-4.50 per cent, with the rates peaking in May 2023 at 4.92 per cent.
The US central bank has raised its policy rate by 375 basis points this year, the fastest pace since the 1980s.
This aggressive approach has stoked worries of a recession, with top executives of major US financial institutions including JPMorgan, BlackRock and Citi forecasting a likely economic downturn in 2023.
Wall Street rebounds, US jobless claims rises
By Samuel Yang
The S&P 500 closed higher on Thursday, snapping a five-session losing streak, as investors pushed the index higher after interpreting data showing a rise in weekly jobless claims as a sign the pace of interest rate hikes could soon slow.
Wall Street's main indices had come under pressure in recent days, with the benchmark index shedding 3.6 per cent since the beginning of December on expectations of a longer rate-hike cycle and downbeat economic views from some top company executives.
Such thinking had also weighed on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which had posted four straight losing sessions prior to Thursday.
However, investors drew some comfort after data showed the number of Americans filing claims for jobless benefits increased moderately last week, while unemployment rolls hit a 10-month high toward the end of November.
The report follows data last Friday that showed US employers hired more workers than expected in November and increased wages, spurring fears that the Fed might stick to its aggressive stance to tame decades-high inflation.
"The market has to adjust to the fact that we're moving from a stimulus-based economy — both fiscal and monetary — into a fundamentals-based economy, and that's what we're grappling with right now," said Wiley Angell, chief market strategist at Ziegler Capital Management.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent, the S&P 500 advanced 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.1 per cent.
How you can prepare for rising mortgage repayments
By Samuel Yang
We all know that the official cash rate has gone up eight times this year.
Many borrowers who locked in an ultra-low fixed rate are worried about how they will afford the extra money on their repayments when their fixed-rate term comes to an end next year.
Here are some practical tips for you to prepare in this story by ABC business reporter Emily Stewart.
Rates, Russia and recession fears: 2022 in business news
By Samuel Yang
From COVID-19, to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and interest rate hikes, here's a look back at 2022 in economic news, plus the big challenges ahead.
Watch this short video by ABC business reporter Rachel Pupazzoni.
Market snapshot
By Samuel Yang
This is where the market is up at shortly after 10:15am AEDT.
- ASX 200: Up 0.5 per cent to 7,209
- All Ords: Up 0.5 per cent to 7,404
- Aussie dollar: 67.73 US cents
- On Wall Street: Dow up 0.6 per cent, S&P 500 up 0.8 per cent, Nasdaq up 1.1 per cent.
- In Europe: Stoxx 50 flat, FTSE down 0.2 per cent, DAX flat
- Spot gold: Up 0.1 per cent to $US1788.87 an ounce
- Brent crude: Down 0.9 per cent to $US76.51 a barrel
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Iron ore: Up 3 per cent to $US110.70 a tonne.
- Bitcoin: Up 0.3 per cent to $US17240.00
Good morning
By Samuel Yang
Welcome to our markets live blog, where we'll bring you the latest price action and news on the ASX and beyond.
A rally on Wall Street overnight sets the tone for local market action today.
The Dow Jones index rose 0.3 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.9 per cent, at 7:00am AEDT.
At the same time, ASX futures were up 18 points or 0.3 per cent, to 7,199.
The Australian dollar was up 0.7 per cent to 67.69 US cents.
Brent crude oil was down 1.2 per cent, trading at $US76.24 a barrel.
Spot gold rose 0.2 per cent to $US1,789.32.
Iron ore gained 3 per cent to $US110.70 a tonne.
