Australian shares continued to rise for the fifth straight day, supported by rising bets that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates in September after US consumer prices rose at their slowest pace in more than three years.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 14.80 points, or 0.2%, to 7,865.50.
The US inflation rate rose 2.9% in July, dipping below 3% for the first time since 2021, The Guardian reported.
The inflation data should support a 25-basis-point rate cut in September, but not a bigger 50-bps reduction, The Guardian cited Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, as saying.
On the domestic front, Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 4.2% in July from 4.1% in June. The employment-to-population ratio increased to 64.3% in July from 64.2% the previous month, while the participation rate rose to 67.1% from 67% in June.
"With the participation rate at new highs, the Reserve Bank of Australia has room to keep rates on hold in September while assessing incoming data," said Tony Sycamore, IG market analyst for Australia.
In company news, Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) closed 20% higher Thursday after discovering "exceptionally" high-grade gold mineralization at its Titan prospect within the Karratha gold project in Western Australia. Rock chip samples returned assays exceeding 10,000 grams per tonne of gold, with other samples yielding 6,520 g/t and 10.2 g/t of gold.
Cochlear (ASX:COH) reported that its earnings per share for the 12 months ended June 30 rose to AU$5.430, compared with AU$4.561 in the year-ago period. Statutory net profit was AU$356.8 million, up 18% from AU$300.6 million a year ago. Shares of the medical device company fell 7%.
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