Business confidence was little changed in June after a substantial fall in May, with weakness in the mining and manufacturing sectors offset by better readings in retail and wholesale confidence, according to a monthly survey by the National Australia Bank.
US stocks edged up on Monday, led by technology stocks, including Microsoft and SanDisk, following ratings upgrades from analysts, although jitters over second-quarter earnings reports and disappointing import data from China weighed on Alcoa and other materials stocks.
A recent downtrend in housing activity showed signs of levelling out in May as data found home loan financing rose for the first time since September 2009.
The number of housing-finance approvals rose a seasonally adjusted 1.9% in May from April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. First home buyers accounted for 16.1% of new home loans in May, down from 28.5% a year ago in a period that was marked by a frenzy of buying helped by economic stimulus.
US stocks climbed on Friday, extending their bounce back from the previous week's slump and marking their best week in nearly a year. Alcoa, Caterpillar and Bank of America were among the gainers in the rally, propelled by improving expectations for the second-quarter earnings season kicking off on Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 59.04 points (0.58%) to 10,198.03, its fourth-straight session in positive territory. For the week, the Dow jumped 5.28%, its biggest weekly gain since the week ended July 17, 2009.
US stocks climbed on Thursday, marking their third straight day in the black as a bigger-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims and improved same-store sales from a number of retailers lifted McDonald's, American Express and Coca-Cola.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 120.71 points (1.20%) to 10,138.99. The measure has risen 4.67% over the past three days, marking its best three-day performance since the three-day period ended May 12.
Employment soared in June as 45,900 jobs were added to the labour force, ramping up pressure on the RBA to resume policy tightening despite the continued presence of economic concerns in other parts of the globe.
With strength evident throughout the work force, partly helped by a surging commodities boom, the air tight labour market is raising the spectre of full employment in the near term. Overall, 327,300 jobs have been created since August 2009, despite the impact of six interest rate hikes from the RBA over that time frame.
US stocks rallied broadly on Wednesday in the third-biggest one-day gain of the year, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average back above the key 10,000 level. Financial stocks, including JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, led the climb, boosted by a rosy earnings forecast from State Street and as details on euro-zone bank stress tests removed some uncertainty.
The Dow climbed 274.66 points (2.82%) to 10,018.28, its biggest one-day gain since May 27 and highest close since June 28. The measure is now up 2.5% for the month but still down 3.93% for the year.
US stocks closed higher on Tuesday, with Microsoft, Alcoa and Bank of America among the gainers, although continued concerns about global growth sapped some of the market's earlier gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 57.14 points (0.59%) to 9,743.62, snapping a seven-session losing streak. However, the measure lost much of its morning gains; it had been up more than 170 points earlier in the session.
Interest rates were left unchanged but the central bank removed some of the speculation from the market that policy will be tightened in the near-term, warning of an uneven global recovery and signs of a slowdown locally.
Still, the Reserve Bank of Australia left the door open for more hikes. The cash rate target was left unchanged for a second month in a row at 4.50%, with RBA Governor Glenn Stevens describing the rates as "appropriate".
Australia posted its biggest monthly trade surplus since March 2009 in May, confirming a massive turnaround in the trade account on the back of surging coal and iron ore prices.
The seasonally adjusted balance on trade in goods and services widened to a surplus of $1.65bn in May from a surplus of $1.12bn in April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Imports rose 4% in May with exports surging 6%.
The ABS also revised higher its April trade surplus to $1.12b, up by almost $1bn from its original estimate.