The Australian sharemarket opened higher on Thursday after Federal Reserve policymakers made no change to its 2025 interest rate projections and downplayed the risk of higher inflation from the Trump administration’s punitive tariff regime.
The S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7 per cent, up 54.1 points, to 7882.4 in the first 20 minutes of trade, paring some of the prior session’s losses. The All Ordinaries also rose 0.7 per cent. Ten of 11 sectors were higher, led by technology stocks.
US shares surged after policymakers said interest rates were still poised to fall by 50 basis points by the end of the year, and held the federal funds rate steady, in line with prior forecasts. Fed chairman Jerome Powell said any tariff-driven bump in inflation would be “transitory”.
The S&P 500 Index closed up 1.1 per cent as growth stocks gained, with Tesla up 4.7 per cent. Bitcoin rallied 5.2 per cent, topping $US86,884, as investors piled back in to risk assets.
“Chair Powell’s comfort on inflation, and tariffs was notable – he was remarkably relaxed on it,” ING Economics’ Americas head of research, Padhraic Garvey, said. “Upbeat on growth, with some risks, but very relaxed on inflation.”
Australian shares tracked Wall Street’s broad rally. Technology stocks lead the gains, with WiseTech adding 2.3 per cent and TechnologyOne gaining 2.3 per cent. Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac added more than 1 per cent. NAB gained 1 per cent despite Morgan Stanley downgrading it to “equal weight”.
Property stocks, which can be sensitive to interest rate movements, posted notable gains: Goodman Group rose 1.3 per cent, Scentre climbed 1.4 per cent and Vicinity Centres added 1.4 per cent.
In corporate news, Nanosonics rallied 10.8 per cent after US regulators approved its cleaning tool designed to clean endoscopes used in hospitals and reduce infection risk.
Cleanaway Waste Management will acquire Contract Resources for $377 million, a deal it says will deliver about $12 million in annual net cost synergies. The shares advanced 2.8 per cent.
TPG Telecom can proceed with its $5.25 billion sale of its fibre networks to Vocus Group after the competition watchdog gave the deal a green light. The shares gained 2.2 per cent.
Arafura Rare Earths leapt 9.5 per cent after entering a deal to supply 100 tonnes per year of neodymium-praseodymium oxide to Luxembourg-headquartered mining group Traxys for five years.
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