ASX closes in the green
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 (^AXJO) has pared back losses to close in the green, despite Australia's biggest ASX-listed company, blood products giant CSL, dragging down the market during the day.
The broader All Ordinaries index (^AORD) also closed up 0.07 per cent.
What happened this morning?
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 (^AXJO) fell 0.33 per cent at the open, after Wall Street ended its four-day run of gains.
The broader All Ordinaries index (^AORD) also fell 0.33 per cent.
Health shares had a poor start, down 2.88 per cent followed by technology shares, down 1.64 per cent while financials was the best performing sector, up 0.72 per cent.
In the top performing sector, NAB and Bank of Queensland enjoyed the best gains of the big names, up 1.64 and 1.40 per cent respectively.
The government outlined its changes to foreign investment laws, designed to protect companies critical to Australia’s national security.
One Australian dollar was buying 69.41 US cents at 0800 AEST, up from 68.90 US cents at the close of trade on Thursday.
What happened overnight?
In the US, the S&P 500 lost ground as investors took profits in advance of Friday’s jobs report, which is expected to show the US unemployment rate skyrocket to a historic 19.7 per cent.
"This market has gone up so far so fast there's a lot of people saying, 'I'm going to take a little profit,'" Jim Paulson, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis, told AAP.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.93 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 26,281.82, the S&P 500 lost 10.52 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 3,112.35 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 67.10 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 9,615.81.
With AAP.
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