The Australian share market enjoyed a modest rise to end the week on Friday after a Wall Street rally caused by optimism of more interest rate cuts in the future.
The ASX 200 index closed up 0.5%, or 40 points, to close on 8628.2 points after eight of the 11 sectors rose.
However, that rise wasn’t enough to turn around the week, which saw the ASX 200 drop 0.8% - following on from a three-week winning streak.
That leaves our index on track to record a 5.8% rise for the year – a disappointing result compared to double-digit gains on most US and European share market indices.
US rallying on rate cut hopes
The rally on Wall Street came after American core consumer prices rose by less than expected, even though there are fears that the data could be flawed due to the US government shutdown.
US markets are now pricing a 25% chance of a January rate cut by the US Fed, increasing to an almost certain cut by April.
Tech drives higher
Technology was one of the features of the Australian market with Zip (ASX: ZIP), Megaport (ASX: MP1) and Novonix (ASX: NVX) all jumping by more than 3%.
WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) rallied 3.2% to $70.18 after a board review into executive chairman Richard White found no further issues to investigate.
In tune with the market uplift, the big banks all had a good day with Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) leading the way, up 1.8% to $157.75.
Westpac (ASX: WBC) were up 1.3% to $38.76, National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) rose 0.8% to $42.14 and ANZ (ASX: ANZ) were steady on $36.03.
Drones fly much higher
One of the best performed stocks was DroneShield (ASX: DRO) which closed up a stunning 12% higher at $2.78.
That means that shares in the counter-drone tech firm rose an amazing 31% this week.
The performance for miners was more mixed with a positive recovery in uranium companies but a less positive performance by the big miners.
Uranium stock Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) jumped 11.4% to $1.315, recovering somewhat from a 25% fall on Thursday after downgrading the performance of its Honeymoon project.
Other uranium stocks to recover included Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) which jumped 9.3% to $9.09 and Deep Yellow (ASX: DYL) which rallied 8.8% to $1.80.
Lower iron ore prices dragged down the big miners, with Fortescue (ASX: FMG) down 3.2% to $21.88, BHP (ASX: BHP) down 1.2% to $44.36 and Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) which swam against the tide, rising 0.1% to $143.07.
Stocks ebbing and flowing on news
There were plenty of stocks that bounced around on the back of company news too.
4DMedical (ASX: 4DX) jumped 21% to $3.51 after its respiratory imaging technology was announced for use in the Cleveland Clinic.
Macquarie (ASX: MQG) managed to gain 1.5% to $200.58 even after the company was hit with a $35 million fine after admitting it had misreported millions in short securities sales over 15 years.
Shares in Netwealth (ASX: NWL) fell 6.5% to $25.25 after it agreed to pay $101 million to compensate superannuation customers who invested in First Guardian.
Ship builder Austal (ASX: ASB) saw its shares rise 5.8% to $6.60, the biggest one-day gain in three months, after it secured a contract extension to build two additional patrol boats for the Australian Border Force.
That deal is valued at more than $135 million and Austal shares have more than doubled in the past year on the back of improving defence spending.
The week ahead
Economic and company news is set to slow significantly over the Christmas/ New Year period but there are still a few things to watch out for, with the biggest probably the release of the Reserve Bank’s board minutes.
That decision to hold the cash rate steady and warn about the dangers of rising inflation was a major turning point for the Australian economy and traders will be hoping for more guidance about whether this really did mark the end of the easing cycle.
Other things to watch out for include home values, building approvals, consumer prices and job advertisements.
There is also a raft of economic data out of the US, with the biggest being the measure of economic growth while China should announce another record trade surplus.
