The ASX is heading for a weak start later this morning after a stuttering end to what was a solid week on Friday.
Eurozone and US shares fell 0.1% on Friday despite the S&P 500 briefly hitting an all time.
Gold and oil rose, iron ore edged higher and bond yields ended lower for the week but higher on the day.
All that saw ASX 200 futures fall 17 points or 0.3% pointing to a soft start to trade for the Australian share market today.
The Australian share market gained 1.5% as another rate cut from the Reserve Bank became the dominant message.
All that saw bond yields push even lower with a new record low in Australia of 1.28%.
The Aussie dollar rose above 69 US cents to end the week around 69.27 with the US Fed Reserve moving to a clear easing bias easing which pushed the greenback lower.
The ASX 200 Index rose 96.8 points to 6,650.8 last week, while the All Ords added 100.7 points, or 1.5%, to close the week at 6,734.3.
Energy and gold shares rose – Woodside Petroleum jumped 5.9% to $37.11, Origin Energy rose 4.7% to $7.35, AGL Energy climbed 4.2% to $20.39 and Beach Energy closed 7.1% at $1.96.
Among the gold miners, Northern Star Resources rose 10.9% to $11.69, St Barbara was up the same amount to $2.96, Newcrest Mining shares added 6.2% to end the week at $32.00 and Resolute Mining shares were up 7.1% at $1.21.
Among the big miners, Rio Tinto shares fell 3.6% after downgrading its iron ore production forecasts for 2019 for a second time this year because of production problems in the Pilbara.
The iron ore price ended at $US116.98 (up 6% for the week) after touching a new five and a bit year high of $US117.26.
Despite that performance BHP shares only edged up 1.8% over the week to $41.03 and Fortescue shares were up 0.8% higher at $8.87.
Tech shares were stronger – Afterpay Touch shares climbed 10.5% to $23.85 (those investors who took up the recent issue at $23 a share are at last smiling); Nearmap jumped 14.8% to end the week at $4.12, Appen shares rose 8.8% to $28.10 and Altium shares ended up 4.1% to $33.97.
WiseTech Global shares ended up 4.8% for the week at $28.44 after a 3.5% drop on Friday.
Caltex shares lost ground, losing 10.5% at $23.68 after a gloomy profit warning covering all parts of the business.
Vocus Group shares fell heavily slumping 26.6% to $3.20 after AGL became the second would be suitor to walk away from a bid for the telco.
Friday saw Adairs shares slump on an earnings downgrade – the shared lost a third over the week to end at $1.25.
And shares in Seven West Media ended at 48 cents on Friday, its final day in the ASX 200. That left them down 12.7% for ht year to date and 43.5% for the past 51 weeks.
