Australian Market Significantly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Australian stock market is trading significantly higher on Friday, extending the sharp gains in the previous session, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is staying moving above the 8,650 level, with strong gains in mining stocks, particularly gold stocks amid jumping bullion prices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is gaining 74.20 points or 0.86 percent to 8,666.20, after touching a high of 8,676.00 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is up 77.20 points or 0.87 percent to 8,954.70. Australian stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday.

Among major miners, Mineral Resources is edging up 0.5 percent, while BHP Group, Fortescue and Rio Tinto are advancing almost 2 percent each.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Santos is losing more than 1 percent, while Woodside Energy and Beach energy are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each. Origin Energy is edging up 0.4 percent. Among tech stocks, Afterpay-owner Block and Zip are edging up 0.5 percent each, while WiseTech Global is gaining more than 1 percent. Appen is losing almost 1 percent and Xero is flat.

Among the big four banks, Westpac is edging up 0.3 percent, while Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking are gaining almost 1 percent each. Gold miners are mostly higher. Resolute Mining is adding almost 4 percent, Newmont is surging more than 5 percent, Northern Star Resources is gaining almost 3 percent, Evolution Mining is advancing more than 4 percent and Genesis Minerals is jumping more than 6 percent.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.667 on Friday.

On Wall Street, stocks indexes moved in starkly opposite directions in early trading on Thursday, with the Dow moving sharply higher and the Nasdaq showing a significant pullback.

While the Nasdaq climbed well off its worst levels of the day, the tech-heavy index still closed down 60 points or 0.3 percent at 23,594. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 14 points or 0.2 percent to 6,901 and the Dow jumped 646 points or 1.3 percent to a new record closing high of 48,704.01.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the German DAX Index climbed by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.

Crude oil prices dropped on Thursday on oversupply concerns even as OPEC prepares to pause output hikes in early 2026. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.88 or 1.51 percent at $57.58 per barrel.