By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 26.30 points or 0.35% to 7,469.10 during the first hour of Friday’s trade, snapping two sessions of consecutive declines and tracking a positive lead on Wall Street overnight as market participants weighed comments from Federal Reserve officials following minutes from the central bank’s latest meeting.
ASX 200 Futures were pointing 0.34% lower.
Among stocks, Materials were up 1% overall as Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) added 0.5%, BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) gained 0.9%, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) lifted 0.9%, Arizona Lithium Ltd (ASX:AZL) added 5.7%, Core Lithium Ltd (ASX:CXO) gained 5% and Piedmont Lithium Ltd (ASX:PLL) added 3.4%.
Real estate companies added 0.5% collectively as Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) lifted 0.8%, Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) added 1.1% and Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) gained 1.7%.
Meantime, Utilities were down 0.7% as Mercury NZ Ltd (ASX:MCY) lost 2.2%, Infratil Ltd (ASX:IFT) fell 2.05% and Meridian Energy Ltd (ASX:MEZ) eased 0.2%.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields were just below fresh 7-year highs of 2.945% while United States 10-Year rates were at 37-month highs of 2.634%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 was just 0.05% higher at 12,083.