Arabic version: ارتفاع البورصة الأسترالية مع مثول البنك المركزي أمام لجنة برلمانية

According to ABC News, Australian shares opened higher after Wall Street rebounded, while Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock and other senior officials appeared before a parliamentary committee in Canberra. The ASX began trading 0.35 per cent higher and the All Ordinaries rose 0.4 per cent.

Overnight, the Nasdaq gained 1.7 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 1.1 per cent and the Dow Jones added 0.6 per cent. The rebound followed the Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate rise in more than three years. Treasury yields dipped, while technology was the S&P 500’s strongest sector. Chipmakers and gold miners each rose more than 3 per cent.

In her opening statement, Bullock said housing market conditions had softened and that a larger-than-expected easing could pose a downside risk to economic activity. Housing prices have fallen in most capital cities and new housing loans have declined, she said, but prices remain about 50 per cent above their level in early 2020. Bullock said a structural undersupply had underpinned housing prices in recent years and financial-stability risks remained contained.

Bullock also said petrol prices in Australia had stayed elevated for longer than anticipated. Businesses were initially inclined to wait and see how global oil and domestic fuel prices developed after the conflict that began on February 28, she said. But she said there was now more inclination among businesses to pass through cost increases because they were expected to be more persistent.

The committee also discussed the AI and technology boom. RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser said the strength of the boom in the United States was striking and that it was also evident in the Asia-Pacific region. He said forecasts for global growth had repeatedly been surprised on the upside, while officials described the cycle as a more conventional investment boom involving data centres, memory chips and servers.