After opening sharply higher, the ASX 200 Index has pulled back to be trading 0.20% higher at 8,092 points this afternoon. The benchmark index is on track to end the week more than 1% higher.
The local gains followed optimism in Europe overnight, where the European Central Bank (ECB) cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.5%. In the US, producer price data was in line with expectations, alleviating concerns about inflationary pressures.
Today’s market strength came from the Materials and Real Estate sectors, which are up 1.86% and 1.58% higher respectively.
Gold miners were particularly strong after the gold price reached a new record high overnight at US$2,558 per ounce as concerns over global growth and inflation persisted. This supported local gold companies — Evolution mining is up 8% in afternoon trade, Northern Star is 4.5% and Newmont Corp has lifted 4%.
Financials, however, are having a rough session, down 0.7% at 3pm (AEST) with the big four banks each in the red, although Macquarie is trading slightly higher.
The federal government has released draft legislation for consultation, under which Australian banks, telcos and tech giants would have to comply with new rules about detecting, preventing and responding to scams.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has criticised the Australian Government for newly proposed laws that would fine content distribution platforms like X up to 5% of their global revenue as a penalty for allowing the spread of deliberate disinformation online.
Bill Shorten hit back at Musk’s comments saying, “Elon Musk’s had more positions on free speech than the Kama Sutra. When it’s in its commercial interests, he is the champion of free speech and when he doesn’t like it ... he’s going to shut it all down.”
The proposed bill would enable the ACMA to gather information, maintain records, register codes and create standards to ensure social media platforms are meeting their obligations in terms of combating disinformation.
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