Staff writersUpdated August 20, 2026 — 11:03am,first published August 20, 2026 — 5:28amThe Australian sharemarket advanced in early trade on Thursday, tracking a recovery on Wall Street as pressure from the bond market eased after the US Treasury unveiled plans to buy back longer-dated debt to curb borrowing costs.The S&P/ASX 200 was up 26.30 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 9080.10 as of 10.54am AEST, having fallen for six straight sessions. Four of its 11 industry sectors were in the green, led by gold miners and tech stocks. The Australian dollar was stronger at US71.26¢.It’s another busy day on the reporting season calendar, with Fortescue and Northern Star among companies who revealed their results. Australia’s unemployment figures for July will be released at 11.30am AEST.Wall Street’s benchmark index rose for its first gain in four days.BloombergMiners led the early gains, with gold miners rallying after bullion held the biggest gain in six months after the US Treasury’s surprise move to rein in long-term borrowing costs. Gold was trading above $US4500 an ounce, after surging more than 4 per cent on Wednesday.The US Treasury unexpectedly announced it’s ramping up buybacks of long-dated government debt, signalling it wants to lower borrowing costs after yields hit multi-decade highs. Gold has been volatile in recent weeks amid fears Iran-war-fuelled inflation might force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, which boosted bond yields and weighed non-yielding assets like gold.Northern Star Resources rallied 7 per cent, also after showing how it benefited from gold’s record highs earlier this year. Its net income soared 24 per cent to $1.7 billion in the year to June 30, the miner said, thanks to a 26 per cent rise in the average price it was able to fetch for its gold. Rivals Evolution Mining and Newmont jumped 8.5 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively.Iron ore producer Fortescue opened lower, but then joined the mining rally even after saying its full-year profit fell despite buoyant iron ore prices as China’s property slowdown and negotiations with the country’s state-backed buyer dragged on. The miner posted a net profit of $US2.9 billion for the 12 months to June 30, down 15 per cent on the year before.The results conclude a challenging year for Fortescue, which is in active negotiations with China’s state-backed iron ore buyer. China Mineral Resources Group has imposed restrictions on shipments of Super Special Fines, a cheaper low-grade ore that is one of Fortescue’s key exports.Its bigger rivals BHP and Rio Tinto gained in early trade, rising 2.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively.Tech stocks were the other big winners, shrugging off falls by Big Tech stocks on Wall Street overnight. Software makers Xero and WiseTech - which slumped almost 9 per cent on Wednesday after the competition watchdog executed a search warrant on its offices - were up 2.6 per cent and 5.9 per cent. Communications and metal detection tech firm Codan soared 10.1 per cent after reporting a 69 per cent profit jump and raising its dividend by 70 per cent.Financial stocks were trading lower, with all big four banks down in early trade. CBA , Westpac and ANZ Bank shed 1.1 per cent each and National Australia Bank lost 1.2 per cent.Property giant Goodman Group slipped 1.2 per cent even after it said the boom in demand for data centres from AI and cloud computing, networking, and storage hyperscalers gave it a 15.7 per cent jump in full-year operating profit to $2.67 billion. “Automation and robotics continue to drive logistics requirements while scarcity of power and land remains the key constraint on AI and cloud growth supporting data centre demand,” chief executive Greg Goodman said.Super Retail Group rallied 15.6 per ent after posting a $206 million full-year profit, down 7.2 per cent but better than analysts expected. The operator of Rebel, Macpac and Supercheap Auto said it had a positive start to the new financial year, with sales up 3.5 per cent in the first seven weeks, although the fuel crisis, rising interest rates, inflation and pressure on housing markets were “creating uncertainty around the outlook for 2027”.On Wall Street overnight, US stocks rose after the Treasury Department announced a move that could ease pressure coming from the bond market. Strong profit reports for the spring from Estée Lauder, Target and other US companies also helped support sentiment.The S&P 500 climbed 0.2 per cent for its first gain in four days after setting its all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite ticked 0.2 per cent higher.Financial markets have come under growing strain as bond yields charged higher in recent months on worries about inflation, big government debts and other factors. That makes borrowing money more expensive for everyone, which slows the economy and undercuts prices for stocks and other investments.But Treasury yields fell in the morning after the Treasury Department said it will at least double the size of its planned purchases of longer-term Treasurys from September 9 through November 4. The department said it’s doing so “to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants.”These longer-term 10- and 30-year Treasurys are less beholden to the Federal Reserve, which can raise or lower very short-term interest rates for overnight loans. President Donald Trump has lobbied for the Fed to lower interest rates to help the economy.Longer-term yields are set instead by investors in the bond market, who decide how much interest they need to get paid by the US government in exchange for lending it money. And recently, they have been demanding more in interest to make up for the growing risks of high inflation, continued government deficits and other factors.After the Treasury department’s announcement, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.64 per cent from 4.71 per cent late Tuesday. It, though, remains well above its 3.97 per cent level from before the war with Iran sent oil prices and worries about inflation much higher.The 30-year Treasury yield, which recently touched its highest level since 2007, fell more sharply to 5.18 per cent from 5.28 per cent late Tuesday.The relief could be short-lived, some analysts warn, with the value of bonds the US Treasury is proposing to repurchase just a fraction of the overall total.“The boost to buybacks is also happening in a world of challenged Fed credibility,” according to strategists at BNP Paribas. Investors are questioning whether the Federal Reserve will raise the federal funds rate soon to match the tough talk its chairman, Kevin Warsh, has been offering on getting inflation down toward its 2 per cent target.“We do not believe buybacks will be enough to offset a continued loss in Fed credibility,” the BNP Paribas strategists wrote in a report, calling them “necessary, but not sufficient.”On Wall Street, Moderna and Merck helped lead the market after they announced encouraging initial results from a study of a cancer vaccine they co-developed. The new drug showed better recurrence-free survival in melanoma patients who had a combination of it and Keytruda, a prescription immunotherapy drug made by Merck, than with Keytruda alone.Moderna soared 177 per cent, while Merck jumped 12.6 per cent.The continuing parade of US companies reporting bigger profits than analysts expected, meanwhile, continues to support stocks.Estée Lauder rallied 16.3 per cent after CEO Stéphane de La Faverie said a key measure of its revenue growth accelerated for a fourth straight quarter.The skin care company reported earnings per share of 39 cents, after excluding some restructuring and other one-time expenses. That’s up from just 9 cents a year earlier and was better than the 32 cents that analysts expected, according to FactSet.Such growth is imperative because stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term. And strong growth helps allay criticism that stock prices shot too high in their runs to records.Target rose 4.3 per cent, Lowe’s added 2 per cent and home builder Toll Brothers climbed 4 per cent after they all reported better profits for the latest quarter than expected.They helped offset drops for some Big Tech stocks, which restrained the overall market.Broadcom fell 4.6 per cent and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. It and other winners of the artificial-intelligence boom have been swinging sharply through the summer on worries that their stocks may have shot too high and that the AI frenzy may not be sustainable if it doesn’t produce big-enough profits.In other international markets, indexes were mostly lower in Asia and mixed in Europe.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 sank 3.2 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi, which has been home to some of the world’s sharpest swings because of its heavy reliance on AI stocks, slumped 5.8 per cent.with AP and BloombergThe Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners