The Australian share market has gained as tech and miners have rallied, and the Australian dollar has jumped overnight.
The benchmark ASX 200 gained 0.9 per cent to 7,238, while the broader All Ordinaries added 1 per cent to 7,472.
Nine of 11 sectors ended higher. Materials was the best performing sector, gaining 2.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent for the past five days. Tech was next best sector on Friday, up 2.2 per cent.
Gold Road Resources, Champion Iron, Nickel Industries, Pilbara Minerals and Liontown Resources were the top stocks on the main index.
Healius Limited, Domino's Pizza, Ansell, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Imugene were the bottom movers.
After jumping 1 per cent overnight, the Australian dollar was down 0.1 per cent to 72.55 US cents.
Wall Street tech boost
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.3 per cent to close at 33,248. The S&P 500 gained 1.8 per cent to 4,176. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.7 per cent to 12,316.
Tesla, Nvidia and Meta Platforms each rose more than 4 per cent, fuelling gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Amazon rallied 3.1 per cent and Apple added 1.7 per cent.
Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, 10 rose, led by consumer discretionary, up 3 per cent, followed by a 2.7 per cent gain in materials.
US stocks recovered from a drop earlier in the day after Federal Reserve vice chair Lael Brainard said she backed at least a couple more half-percentage-point interest rate hikes. She said she saw little case for pausing rate hikes in September if price pressures failed to cool.
The US stock market has staged a modest recovery in recent sessions, with investors debating whether the worst of a sell-off that has dominated Wall Street in 2022 may be over.
"Volatility has become the norm, not the exception. Stocks are being held hostage by inflation, and until inflation gets under control, volatility is likely to remain high," Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management said.
The S&P 500 is now down about 13 per cent from its record-high close in early January.
US private payrolls increased far less than expected in May, suggesting demand for labour was starting to slow amid higher interest rates and tightening financial conditions, the ADP National Employment report showed.
Home loans fall and banks hike rates
The value of new housing loan commitments fell 6.4 per cent to $31 billion in April 2022 after a rise of 2.1 per cent in the previous month, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
"The value of new housing loan commitments fell 7.3 per cent for owner-occupier lending, while investor lending fell 4.8 per cent. These were the largest monthly falls since May 2020," ABS head of Finance and Wealth Katherine Keenan said.
Ms Keenan said despite the decreases, the value of lending in April remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.
New owner-occupier loan commitments was 44 per cent higher than February 2020, while the value of investor commitments was 113 per cent higher.
But the number of owner-occupier first-home-buyer loans has dropped by 34.3 per cent in April compared to a year ago.
Last month the number of first home buyers was down by 4.4 per cent.
"It's been a tough slog for first-home buyers trying to get into an over-inflated property market, so it's no surprise to see these numbers dwindle," RateCity head of research Sally Tindall said.
"While it has been a bleak year for first-home buyers, with investors now retreating, they may finally get a foot in the door in the coming months if prices drop."
Oil up on OPEC call
OPEC and its oil-producing allies agreed on Thursday to increase supply in July and August.
But oil prices were relatively unchanged on Friday, as producers belonging to OPEC+ can hike their crude output enough to make up for lost supply from Russia.
ANZ analysts also noted Russian output has already dropped by 1 million bpd since its invasion of Ukraine and is likely to fall even further as the European Union's ban on Russian oil kicks in.
"To put it another way, traders think the incremental increase is too small relative to the growing downside supply risks from the EU embargo amid an expected increased demand from China," SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes said.
Brent crude was down 0.2 per cent to $US117.39 per barrel, while West Texas crude dropped 0.3 per cent to $US116.49 cents per barrel.
Spot gold was flat at $US1,872.10 an ounce, after a strong day of trading on the weaker US dollar.
ABC/Reuters
