Australian shares edged higher in early trading as modest gains in the tech and retail sectors offset profit taking in the big miners after yesterday’s rally.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 8.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8604.6 in the first 10 minutes of trading on Friday, with nine out of the 11 sectors in the green.

Materials dropped 1.2 per cent, with the iron producers BHP and Rio Tinto both coming off 1.7 per cent, while Perth-based miner South32 dropped 1.4 per cent, and Pilbara Minerals dropped 1.3 per cent. This came after index heavyweight BHP on Thursday jumped $2.07 to $39.27, helped by a spike in the iron ore price after Beijing vowed to crack down on disorderly low-price competition for the steel industry.

However, tech stocks tracked gains in New York overnight. Six of the seven magnificent mega-cap techs closed higher in New York, paced by Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia. Markets closed at 1pm (3am AEST) ahead of US Independence Day. Wall Street will reopen on Monday (Tuesday AEST).

The S&P 500 posted four record highs in the last five trading sessions. Research firm CFRA raised its 12-month price target for the S&P 500 to 6850, implying a gain of 10.3 per cent from the June 30 close and the year-end 2025 level of 6525. It closed at 6279.35 on Thursday (Friday AEST).

Sentiment was bolstered by a much stronger than expected June payrolls report, which showed the US economy added 147,000 jobs last month, and the jobless rate edged down to 4.1 per cent, leading traders to dial back rate cut bets.

“We are seeing a real bout of irrational exuberance, the stock market is very biased towards optimism,” Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group in New York, told Reuters.

On the ASX, tech stocks followed the New York rally. Appen gained 4.4 per cent, Life360 jumped 3.5 per cent, NextDC rose 1 per cent, and Xero edged up 0.8 per cent.

Retail stocks also bounced ahead of expectations of a rate cut next week, with Wesfarmers up 1 per cent, Aristocrat up 1.2 per cent, Myer up 1.1 per cent, and Premier Investments edging 0.8 per cent higher.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, Cleanaway rose 2 per cent after the ACCC has cleared the waste management company’s $377 million acquisition of Contract Resources, which was announced in March.

Silk Logistics rocketed 22 per cent after the ACCC also announced it would not oppose DP World Australia’s $174m takeover of the national container services provider.