Australian shares edged higher on the back of gains in the tech sector after President Donald Trump said he does not think he’ll need to extend the July 9 trade deadline he has imposed on countries to secure deals with the US to avoid higher tariffs.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 15.8 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 8530 in the opening five minutes of trading on Monday, with seven out of the 11 sectors gaining.

Investors took profits from the big iron ore producers on the last day of financial year, with Rio Tinto down 1.8 per cent and BHP falling 1.6 per cent.

But these losses were offset by gains in tech stocks, with Wisetech, TechnologyOne, and NextDC all gaining roughly 1 per cent.

This followed a strong session on Wall Street that pushed the S&P 500 to a fresh record of 6170 and Nvidia towards $US4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) in market capitalisation.

The global benchmark Brent crude is near $US66.80 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate is at $US65 per barrel. Gold futures are near $US3302 per ounce, while iron ore on the Singapore exchange settled near $US94.75 per tonne.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index has climbed 9.7 per cent for the 12 months through June – a rally which has only been surpassed by the 12 months to the end of June 2021, when equities rocketed more than 20 per cent as investors piled back into the market from the pandemic slump.

The latest turnaround is more impressive given it was just three months ago when Trump rocked markets with his sweeping “liberation day” tariffs before agreeing to a 90-day pause that is now set to expire in less than two weeks.

“I don’t think I’ll need to,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday (Monday AEST) when asked if he would extend the July 9 deadline he has imposed on countries to negotiate trade pacts with the US to avoid the import levies.

Principal Asset Management market strategist Magdalena Ocampo said the S&P 500 was hovering around all-time highs despite lingering concerns over US Federal Reserve policy, tariffs and ongoing tension in the Middle East, showing that healthy economic fundamentals were the “ultimate buffer” for negative headlines.

“This year’s investment landscape resembles a classic ‘buy the rumour, sell the news’ environment, making it difficult for investors to distinguish noise from trends amidst rapid change.”

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, James Hardie jumped 8.4 per cent after shareholders in US outdoor decking company Azek on Friday (Saturday AEST) approved a $14 billion buyout which means James Hardie will shift its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange.

DroneShield rose another 3.8 per cent after announcing it had been awarded a $9.7 million Latin American contract. It jumped 33 per cent last week after announcing a major European contract.