A positive global lead on Friday night saw ASX 200 futures rise 31 points or 0.5% pointing to a positive start to trade for the Australian share market later today.
Australian shares rose 1.6% helped by solid profit results. The ASX 200 index rose 48 points, or 0.8% to 5999 on Friday while the All Ordinaries added 47 points, or 0.8%, to 6105.
That was after eurozone shares rose 0.2% on Friday and the US S&P 500 gained 1.6% as fears about US interest rates faded a touch.
But if anyone thinks the rise on Friday was representative of the week on Wall Street, think again.
If it had not have been for Friday’s solid rises, Wall Street would have ended the week in the red.
The Dow rose 1.4% on Friday at 25,309.99, thanks in part to a 4 per cent jump for tech stocks. The S&P 500 added 43.34 points, or 1.6%, to 2,747 and the Nasdaq ended a four-day losing streak to finish up 1.77% to 7,337.39.
The strong finish helped Wall Street achieve back-to-back weekly gains. For the week — not including Monday, when markets were closed for Presidents Day — the S&P 500 rose 0.56%, the Dow increased 0.37% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.35%.
Clearly Friday’s gains wiped out three days of losses.
Eurozone shares gained 0.3% for the week, Japanese shares rose 0.8%, Chinese shares rose 2.6% (despite the move by the government to seize control of giant insurer, An Bang for at least a year and charge its chairman with corruption).
Commodity prices were mixed with oil and iron ore up, but metals down not helped by a bounce in the $US.
The stronger US dollar also saw the $A fall half a cent to end at 78.40 on Saturday.
