ASX 200 live: NAB's profit beats estimates; Bessent, China to talk trade this week; China cuts rates
China has cut interest rates and announced other economic boosters before its first trade talks with the US since US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs in April. Local shares close slightly higher, bitcoin gains and the AUD is near US65c.
Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Wednesday, May 7. The ASX 200 index rose 0.3 per cent to 8178.3 points, with broad gains, led by energy, consumer-exposed stocks and miners.
Before the US-China meeting was announced, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell almost 400 points, or 0.9 per cent. The S&P 500 was 0.8 per cent lower, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9 per cent, weighed down by a post-earnings selloff in Palantir.
Gold futures have retreated to near $US3384 per ounce after news of the US-China meeting. It had hit a new record above $US3440 in US trading earlier.
Cryptocurrency giant bitcoin is below $US97,000.
The Aussie dollar is trading around US64.95c.
Originally published as ASX 200 live: NAB's profit beats estimates; Bessent, China to talk trade this week; China cuts rates
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