By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 63.8 points or 0.9% to 7,344.2 after 100 minutes of Friday’s trade, extending gains for the third consecutive session and notching fresh 5-week highs as cooling U.S. inflation pushed the U.S. Dollar to fresh 7-month lows.
ASX 200 Futures were pointing 0.4% higher.
Among stocks, Energy led the gains with Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) up 3.3%, Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS) lifting 1.8%, Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) up 2.2%, Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA) adding 2.1% and South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) up 1.5%.
Information Technology was up 0.9% overall, with Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) lifting 2.4%, Novonix Ltd (ASX:NVX) up 0.3%, Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU) lifting 1.2% and Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) adding 2.6%.
Ahead in the session, market participants will be monitoring local home loans data.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year rates were at 3.541% and United States 10-Year yields were at 3.458%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 0.7% to 11,751.8.