ASX limps higher amid choppy early trade

THE share market has eked out modest gains after a choppy morning of trade following Thursday’s $50 billion wipeout.

THE Australian share market has eked out modest gains after a choppy morning of trade, but the local bourse is some way off retracing its recent losses.

Miners and the banks were the best performers early on Friday as local stocks bounced back from a 12-month low, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ahead 16.9 points per cent, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,681.0 at 1200 AEDT.

The broader All Ordinaries was up 20.5 points, or 0.36 per cent, at 5,780.0 as the market limped away from Thursday’s bloodbath that wiped out $50 billion in value.

The Australian dollar lost a bit of ground at noon, buying 70.71 US cents from 70.80 US cents earlier.

The big four banks were all up early after the sector’s worst day in eight months, gaining between 0.19 and 0.7 per cent, led by Commonwealth Bank, while Macquarie Group gained 1.33 per cent.

The big miners turned around recent fortunes to climb 0.82 per cent, led by giants Rio Tinto, which rose 1.55 per cent after its worst day in 18 months, and BHP which gained 1.4 per cent after also slumping the previous session.

The healthcare sector is also ahead by 0.75 per cent but still down more than 10 per cent for the month.

Energy stocks had flattened at noon, while industrials, consumer discretionaries and utilities were down.

US stocks gained overnight, heralding a turnaround for the ASX, which bled red during Thursday’s session, losing three per cent and closing at its lowest since October last year.

Meanwhile, Solomon Lew has written to Myer shareholders urging them to trigger a spill of the company’s board at next month’s annual general meeting. Myer shares were down 1.6 per cent.

Elsewhere, Insurance Australia Group admitted it should have acted sooner to squash its incentives for car dealers to drive sales of so-called junk add-on insurance.

IAG shares were up about 0.8 per cent.

US markets are on pace for their worst month since May 2010. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

WALL ST REBOUNDS AFTER UPBEAT EARNINGS

— Reuters

US stocks have jumped, giving the Nasdaq its biggest daily gain since March, as Microsoft’s upbeat earnings spurred a rebound in technology names and investors snapped up oversold shares.

The Nasdaq rose three per cent on Thursday, a day after it confirmed a correction and registered its biggest decline since 2011.

The Dow and S&P 500 both moved back in positive territory for the year. Microsoft jumped 5.8 per cent after it beat consensus estimates for revenue and profit. That, along with gains in chipmakers, helped technology stocks rise 2.89 per cent.

The latest round of upbeat results came from a wide range of companies, including Ford Motor Co, Visa Inc, Whirlpool Corp and Twitter Inc, and offered relief after the earnings season began on a tepid note and then geared lower on sluggish outlooks from manufacturers and chipmakers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 401.13 points, or 1.63 per cent, to 24,984.55, the S&P 500 gained 49.47 points, or 1.86 per cent, to 2,705.57 and the Nasdaq Composite added 209.94 points, or 2.95 per cent, to 7,318.34.

The Nasdaq registered its biggest daily percentage gain since March 26.

Stocks have sold off recently amid worries over the impact of tariffs and China’s profit slowdown, as well as concerns ranging from rising costs, bond yields, Italy’s budget struggles and the US congressional elections.

In a further sign economic growth is moderating, US business spending on equipment appeared to have remained slow in September and the goods trade deficit widened further as rising imports outpaced a rebound in exports.

But the recent sell-off has also made stocks slightly cheaper. The S&P 500’s valuation fell to a two-and-a-half-year low of 15.3 times profit estimates for the next 12 months from 15.8, according to Refinitiv data.

Results from S&P 500 companies have pushed up third-quarter profit growth estimates to 23.6 per cent from 21.8 per cent in the last 10 days. But dour forecasts have pulled down fourth-quarter growth estimates to 19.4 per cent from 19.9 per cent, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.

Ford, which is struggling with sales in China, rose 9.9 per cent as its earnings report raised hopes for a strong finish to the year, bolstering gains in the consumer discretionary sector.

Advanced Micro Devices’ weak forecast sent its stock tumbling 15.4 per cent. But the Philadelphia Semiconductor index rose 2.3 per cent, helped by Xilinx’s 15 per cent jump on its strong quarterly report.

After the bell, shares of Amazon.com and Alphabet fell sharply following the release of their results. Amazon was down 3.9 per cent while Alphabet was down 3.4 per cent.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.35-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.43-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 37 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 15 new highs and 225 new lows.