Staff writers

Updated October 7, 2026 — 12:01pm,first published October 7, 2026 — 5:16am

The Australian sharemarket dithered in Wednesday’s session, in contrast to Wall Street’s record-setting rally, as local traders tiptoed around rising bond yields and oil prices.

The S&P/ASX 200 opened higher, swung into the red and finished flat, down just 8 points at 8727.70, with six of its sectors in the green and five in the red. The choppy session ended a three-day winning streak for the local bourse amid uncertainty how companies will weather the threats from elevated energy costs and interest rates. The Australian dollar slipped to US69.70¢.

Gold miners led the session’s gains after bullion prices edged higher overnight as easing oil prices helped to somewhat ease investor worries about inflation and the trajectory for interest rates in the world’s largest economy. By afternoon the trend had reversed, with bullion down 0.8 per cent while oil prices resumed their gains, but gold stocks held on to their gains.

The nation’s biggest gold miner, Northern Star Resources, finished up 1.9 per cent, Evolution Mining gained 2.5 per cent and Newmont Mining edging up 0.4 per cent, leaving the iron ore and copper giants in the dust. Rio Tinto slipped 0.6 per cent and Fortescue Metals lost 2.4 per cent.

BHP dropped 0.7 per cent. The world’s largest miner said it will sell its Kambalda nickel concentrator plant and associated land in WA to South Africa’s Gold Fields for an undisclosed price. The sale includes mining tenements and mineral rights. The deal comes as Gold Fields is considering a second takeover bid for Northern Star, which owns several significant gold projects near Kambalda.

Defensive sectors such as property and healthcare fared well, with shopping centre landlords Vicinity and Stockland up 1.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent, while biotech CSL gained 1.9 per cent, pharmacy giant Sigma added 0.8 per cent and PPP maker Ansell rose 0.9 per cent.

Consumer-related stocks also advanced. Wesfarmers, the owner of the Bunnings, Officeworks and Kmart chains, was up 0.6 per cent, while Rebel-owner Super Retail Group rose 2.1 per cent and fashion jewellery seller Lovisa gained 1.2 per cent.

The banking heavyweights, however, struggled, with three of the big four banks down between 0.8 per cent (National Australia Bank) and 1.3 per cent (Commonwealth Bank). ANZ Bank finished flat. Energy stocks were mixed, with oil and gas giant Woodside up 0.8 per cent and Santos down 0.2 per cent, while Ampol shed 1 per cent.

Oil resumed its gains after Iran increased the pace of attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days. Brent rose 1 per cent to about $US101.60 a barrel. Higher oil prices pushed Treasuries lower across the curve, with benchmark 10-year yields climbing four basis points to 5.32 per cent. Australian 10-year bond yields added 1 basis point to 5.41 per cent.

On Wall Street overnight, the US stock market hit a record even as the list of challenges chipping away at it keeps growing. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6 per cent to a fresh all-time high after topping its prior record set in August. Despite worries about everything from war to high inflation to pressure from the bond market, the index at the heart of the US sharemarket has soared 23 per cent since hitting a bottom in late March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 253 points, or 0.5 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite tacked 0.4 per cent onto its own all-time high set the day before.

Many of the fears that sent the US stock market to its bottom in March have indeed come true. Oil prices are high because of the war with Iran, which has made inflation worse. Yields have cranked higher in the bond market, which threatens to slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money. And Americans broadly say they’re feeling more pessimistic about the economy and where it’s heading.

But one vital source of support has remained resolute for the US stock market throughout: the relentless ability for companies to make more money.

Lamb Weston, which sells frozen fries and other potato products, said on Tuesday that its profit and revenue during its latest quarter topped its projections, for example. The results also beat analysts’ expectations, and its stock rallied 7.5 per cent.

It’s not just potato products proving to be profitable. All kinds of companies are lining up to report soon how much profit they made from July through September, and expectations are high. Delta Air Lines will report its third-quarter results on Friday, with several of the country’s biggest banks headlining the following week.

Analysts expect companies in the S&P 500 to deliver overall growth of nearly 30 per cent in earnings per share from a year earlier, according to FactSet. If they’re correct, it would be the third straight quarter of growth better than 25 per cent.

That’s crucial because corporate profits are one of the main levers that set prices for stocks, along with interest rates. At the moment, high bond yields are making investors less willing to pay high prices for investments that aren’t bonds. But the simultaneous strength for corporate profits is allowing the market “to win the tug-of-war against yields,” according to strategists at Barclays.

To be sure, much hinges on companies actually meeting those expectations for fatter profits. If they fail to do so, stock prices could easily fall off their records. Some critics also point to a possible bubble in stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry after how much they soared in the frenzy around the technology.

On Tuesday (US time), Paramount Skydance closed its $US110 billion ($157.5 billion) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, completing one of the biggest media mergers of all time. The merger brings two of America’s oldest movie-making studios together under a new name: Skydance. The deal, which followed a tumultuous, roughly yearlong fight, further concentrates power in an industry already run by just a handful of major players.

AI stocks have been a huge force driving the US market to records, including Nvidia’s 28.3 per cent surge so far this year. That’s roughly double the broad market’s gain.

In other international markets, indexes ticked higher in Europe as yields continue to swing in their bond markets amid concerns about high government debts and tight budgets. In France, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in support of protests by students demanding more funding for schools.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1 per cent, but South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.9 per cent.

with AP, Bloomberg

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.