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Energy stocks are mixed. Yancoal jumped 1.3 per cent, Woodside rose 0.3 per cent while Santos slid by 0.1 per cent.
Overnight, Wall Street notched up more milestones after gains in technology stocks helped push the market to another all-time high. The S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent, lifting the benchmark index to its second record high in a row. The Dow Jones reversed an early slide and gained 0.2 per cent, enough to move past its record high set last Friday.
The Nasdaq composite closed 0.5 per cent higher, finishing just short of its all-time high set two weeks ago.
About 55 per cent of the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 closed lower, but gains in the technology and communication services sectors offset losses elsewhere in the market. Broadcom rose 2.8 per cent, Amazon added 1.1 per cent and Google parent Alphabet finished 2 per cent higher.
Heading into the final day of trading in August, the S&P 500 and Dow were on pace for their fourth straight monthly gain, while the Nasdaq was closing in on its fifth.
The market’s latest gains came as traders pored over a mixed batch of earnings reports from big US companies and new reports on the job market and US economy.
Tech giant Nvidia fell 0.8 per cent a day after reporting quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated.
Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market.
Shares in several retailers fell following their latest quarterly results.
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Best Buy dropped 3.7 per cent after the consumer electronics chain’s second-quarter snapshot was overshadowed by an outlook clouded due to the tariffs the US is imposing on trading partners. Despite also posting better-than-expected quarterly results, Urban Outfitters slid 10.7 per cent after the retailer warned that it expects tariffs will increase pressure on its gross margins in the second half of the year.
Traders also had their eye on new government reports on the job market and economy.
The Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, the latest sign that employers are holding on to their workers even as the economy has slowed.
The most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that US gross domestic product —- the nation’s output of goods and services — grew at a 3.3 per cent annual pace in the April-June quarter after shrinking 0.5 per cent in the first three months of this year due to the fallout from the Trump administration’s trade wars.
Friday will bring another update on inflation: the US personal consumption expenditures index. Economists expect it to show that inflation remained at about 2.6 per cent in July, compared with a year ago. Businesses have been warning investors and consumers about higher costs and prices because of tariffs.
With AP
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