Gold, oil, iron ore, copper led commodities and the confirmation of Joe Biden as the next US President pushed markets higher on Thursday and the ASX is poised for a modest but positive start later today to end the first trading week of 2021.
The sessions so far have been mostly positive as investors have ignored the continuing surge of the pandemic, the win by Democrats in two Senate seats that will give them power for the next two years at least and the storming and assault of the US houses of parliament in Washington by Donald Trump supporters.
The Dow closed above 31,000 points for the first time – up 211.73 points or 0.69% to end at 31,041.13; the S&P 500 jumped 55.65 points, or 1.48%, to 3,803.79, and the Nasdaq surged 326.69 points, or 2.56%, to end at 13,067.48.
Wall Street was overwhelmingly positive with all three measures – the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting new intra day highs and ending the day at all time closing highs.
The ASX 200 futures market was showing a rise of 24 points at 7.30am which will build on yesterday’s solid 1.6% surge (which a near 2% jump at the start of Thursday’s session).
The ASX ended Thursday at 6,712.0 – up 1.6% and its best close since December 17 – with the mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue Metals hitting fresh highs and the major banks booming.
Higher iron ore prices saw BHP rise 6.1% to $46.90, Rio Tinto add 8.6% to $125.66, and Fortescue Metals closed up 3.5% at $25.92. They will be up again today (Friday) after iron ore prices rose again on Thursday to approach the multi-year highs reached before Christmas.
Commonwealth Bank shares added 2% to $84.58, NAB rose 2.8% to $23.04, Westpac finished 3.2% higher at $19.99 and ANZ shares were up 3.8% at $23.64.
The Aussie dollar traded 30-month highs of 78 US cents for most of the day before cooling late Thursday in the local session to 77.85 US cents. It eased again in offshore dealings to be around 77.60 US cents close to 8am Friday, a loss of half a per cent on the session.
Iron ore prices rose 1.7%, or $2.97, to $US171.69 for 62% Fe fines delivered to northern China while the price of 65% Fe fines was up $US3.20 a tonne to $US189.60.
Copper topped $US3.70 a pound on Comex for the first time in more than 8 years. That was a rise of 1.7% on the day.
Comex gold rose (despite a small bounce for the greenback) – up around $US7.50 to $US1,915 an ounce. Comex silver was up 1% to just over $US27.32 an ounce.
Oil prices touched new 11 month highs for a second day in a row on Thursday.
Brent crude rose 8 cents to $US54.38 a barrel by after touching $US54.90 for a second day, a high not seen since before the first COVID-19 lockdowns last February.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up 20 cents to $US50.83, after hitting a session high at $US51.28.
Finally, electric-car maker Tesla jumped nearly 8% to a record high, with its chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk surpassing Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man, according to a report. Tesla was worth $US715 billion at Thursday’s close of $US816.04 (it jumped past $US822 in after hours trading. Musk is said to be worth more than $US184 billion.
