Wall Street may have ended the week with a shortened session, but there was still enough time to push the market to another record closing high.
That momentum should edge the ASX 200 up 0.2% to a fresh high, just above Thursday’s record close of 8,444 points.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6%, rolling through 6,000 points for the first time.
The tech-centric Nasdaq gained 0.8% thanks to Nvidia (+2%) and Tesla (+3.7%) but still finished short of a record.
The “Black Friday” retail sales binge was a catalyst for the gains with one calculation finding consumers would shovel out a record $US10.8 billion, up 10% from last year.
Globally sentiment was solid with MSCI up 0.5% for the day, making November the best month for international equity markets since May.
US Treasury yields continued to slide lower, suggesting fears about the inflationary nature of some of the future Trump administration’s policies (read: tariffs and tax cuts) were easing, at least in the collective mind of the market.
The slide in bond yields also weighed on the Greenback.
The dollar index, which measures the $US against its six major rivals fell 0.3%, or 1.4% over the week, although a sudden jump in the Euro had some impact as well.
The drop in $US gave gold a bit of lift (+0.5%) after its 9-month-long rally recently lost momentum in the wake of the Trump victory.
The global oil benchmark, Brent Crude, fell 0.5% on Friday (+3% for the week) on prospects of easing tensions in the Middle East and the theory that supply and demand would come more into balance through next year.
There was mixed economic news out of China over the weekend.
The official Purchasing Managers’ Index showed manufacturing activity expanded marginally, while services activity contracted marginally — so flat overall.
A private survey found house prices had picked up (+0.4%) across 100 of China’s cities giving a little bit of comfort to policymakers who are hoping to see some stabilisation in the property market.
On last month’s official count, home prices fell almost 6% in October, the 16th consecutive month of declines, after a 5.8% drop in September.