The Australian share market closed flat as investors digested corporate earnings results, with profits down at AGL, Ingham's and Newcrest and TPG.
Locally, the benchmark ASX 200 index closed only 1.7 points higher, at 7,114. The broader All Ordinaries gained just 1 point, at 7,358.
The Australian dollar was down 0.1 per cent to 69.11 US cents.
Six of 11 sectors ended higher on the top companies index.
Energy was the best-performing sector, gaining 3.6 per cent on Friday. Its average gain across the week was 2.4 per cent.
Strong commodity prices saw miners Santos (+6.2 per cent), Whitehaven (+6 per cent), Woodside (+4 per cent), Newcrest (+3.8 per cent) take out the top four spots on the ASX 200, followed by scrap metal group Sims (+3.7 per cent).
Gold miner Newcrest's positive close came after the company reported its net profit was down 25 per cent, to $US872 million, for the year.
The gold and copper miner said the result was mostly due to a drop in production at its Cadia mine in New South Wales and Lihir mine in Papua New Guinea.
Leading the losses were TPG (+12.8 per cent), Ingham's (-9 per cent), Pointsbet (-7.1 per cent), Polynovo (-6.1 per cent) and Tyro Payments (-5.8 per cent).
Ingham's net profit fell 57.9 per cent, to $35.1 million, due to inflation and operational disruptions.
AGL profit dives
AGL Energy's annual profit more than halved, due to lower wholesale electricity prices and an outage at its Victoria power station.
In May, AGL scrapped a plan to split its coal generation and retail businesses under pressure from top shareholder Mike Cannon-Brookes, who wants the country's biggest carbon emitter to accelerate the closure of its coal plants.
The company's failed de-merger has cost the company $125 million so far.
It will present its new strategy and an earnings forecast for the year in September.
In April, the company suffered an outage at a generator in unit 2 of its Loy Yang A power station in Victoria.
The company had estimated the disruption would cost $60 million pre-tax.
Underlying profit after tax was $225 million for the year, compared with $537 million a year ago.
The energy giant will deliver a final dividend of 10 cents per share, compared with 34 cents a year earlier.
AGL stocks lost 3.8 per cent.
Cleanaway Waste Management's profit tanked 45 per cent, to $80.6 million, while the company's revenue jumped 25 per cent, to $3 billion.
Trading of Cleanaway stocks was halted because of a $350 million capital-raising and $50 million share-purchase plan to pay for the acquisition of Global Renewables Holdings.
Stockland's stocks lost 2.1 per cent, after the company posted a net profit jump of 25 per cent to $1.38 billion on strong gains from commercial properties.
Latitude's net profit was down 65 per cent, to $30.6 million. The buy now/pay later player also announced Ahmed Fahour would leave the company next year.
Latitude shares dropped 1.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Cochlear stocks gained 2.1 per cent after the hearing implants maker said sales were rebounding to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Cochlear's statutory net profit was down 11 per cent, while its underlying net profit after tax was up 18 per cent.
Wall Street up
The S&P 500 gained 0.2 per cent, to settle at 4,283, while the Nasdaq also edged 0.2 higher, to 12,965. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 18 points higher, at 33,999.
An upbeat sales forecast from Cisco Systems helped to lift the technology sector, while data showed the economy remained relatively strong.
Investors were also digesting Wednesday's minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting, which did not hint at the pace of rate hikes.
"We're at a point where people are trying to make a judgement about whether the inevitable higher interest rates are going to choke off the upside of the market," Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments, said.
"There are really two camps: one who feels the worst is behind us and continues to buy these sell-offs, and the [other] camp that feels the worst is ahead of us and like this is some kind of bear market rally that will retreat."
Traders expect a greater chance of a 50-basis-point rise in borrowing costs in September instead of a 75-basis-point increase for a third time.
Cisco gained 5.8 per cent and was among the biggest positives on the three major indexes. The tech company gave an upbeat forecast for first-quarter sales late on Wednesday as a COVID-19 recovery in China eased supply chain shortages.
Other gainers in high-growth stocks included Nvidia, which rose 2.4 per cent.
Shares of Kohl's Corp slid 7.7 per cent after the retailer cut its full-year sales and profit forecasts.
Target Corp fell 1.3 per cent, adding to losses from Wednesday when it reported a bigger-than-expected 90 per cent fall in quarterly earnings.
Data released on Thursday showed the US jobs market was still strong, while the housing market was cooling.
Jobless claims fell to 250,000 for the week ending August 13, and home sales fell 6 per cent in July.
Commodities
Spot gold was was down 0.2 per cent, selling for $US1,768.02.
On oil markets, Brent crude was down 0.4 per cent, to $US96.12 per barrel, while West Texas crude had dropped 0.5 per cent, to $US90.04 per barrel.
ABC/Reuters
