Australian shares rose on Wednesday after US stocks ended higher on strong earnings, while oil prices fell overnight.
The ASX 200 opened higher and ended the day up 0.3 per cent to 6,800 points.
The All Ords also gained about 0.3 per cent, to 6,999.
This was despite morning forecasts that the ASX would open lower.
Core Lithium's stock rose 8.2 per cent after forecasts showing the price of the mineral used in renewable energy batteries was still going up.
Pilbara Minerals rose 6.2 per cent, Pendal Group added 5.5 per cent, IGO Limited was up 5.4 per cent and Star Entertainment gained 5.1 per cent.
Megaport was the biggest loser, down 22 per cent.
St Barbara Limited tumbled by 5.7 per cent, Imugene fell 4.1 per cent, Netwealth Group lost 2.8 per cent, and Magellan Financials was down 2.5 per cent.
Energy and information technology finished in the red. Top performers were utilities and industrials.
Medibank in trading halt after 'cyber incident'
Meanwhile, Medibank is in a trading halt until Friday.
That was after it was hit by a "cyber incident" reported last week. It also went into a trading halt then momentarily.
In an update to market on Wednesday, Medibank confirmed "unusual activity last week in part of its IT network" and that the "unusual activity [was] consistent with the precursors to a ransomware event".
"This initial finding was shared with the Australian Cyber Security Centre, who provided Medibank with additional guidance in support of this conclusion."
The ACSC is a Commonwealth agency.
"When the unusual activity was detected on part of its network, the company took the precautionary action to temporarily block and isolate access to the ahm and international student customer policy management systems while the activity was investigated," the statement said.
It followed the data breach on Optus, and other online security problems plaguing other corporates.
Medibank said, "there remains no evidence customer data has been removed from the network".
"Medibank systems were not encrypted by ransomware during this incident and there is no indication that the incident was caused by a state-based threat actor."
In the statement, Medibank chief executive David Koczkar apologised.
"We are sorry this incident occurred, and we understand this news may have caused concerns and inconvenience for some of our customers," he said.
"We took the necessary precautions to protect the data of our customers, people and other stakeholders, and we will continue to do so."
US stocks close higher
Netflix shares jumped more than 10 per cent after the bell on news of better-than-expected earnings and bottom line.
The streaming giant added 2.41 million global subscribers.
It follows a sudden decline in accounts in the first half of the year, when the company's subscriber base shrunk by 1.2 million.
The platform benefited from COVID lockdowns but has slipped amid growing competition for online video viewers.
Netflix now has a total of 223.1 million subscribers around the world.
It follows a volatile session on Wall Street, in which all three indices closed higher.
The Dow Jones index closed up 337 points, or 1 per cent, to 30,523.
The benchmark S&P 500 rose 1.1 per cent to close at 3,719, while the Nasdaq also gained by 0.9 per cent to 10,772.
Goldman Sachs Group gained 2 per cent after reporting a lower-than-expected drop in profit.
A boost in net interest income cushioned the blow from a slowdown in investment banking.
Lockheed Martin surged 8.49 per cent after the weapons maker posted stronger quarterly revenue.
The gains helped lift the benchmark index.
"This is why the rally happened yesterday and the rally is going on today is none of the six-month views that we get from the earnings reporting businesses is overly dour, and that kind of goes against every last person that is saying we are going to have a recession in six months," Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners said.
"Companies are actually really very good, catastrophes and crises aside, at being able to forecast within their pipeline now."
Oil falls
Oil prices fell overnight on concerns of higher US supply and China's economic slowdown denting fuel demand.
Brent crude lost 1.7 per cent, to $US90.03 a barrel, while West Texas crude slipped 3.1 per cent, to $82.82 a barrel.
Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent at $US1,651.50 an ounce, as the US dollar fell.
Europe indices up after UK ditches tax cuts
In Europe, stocks rallied as investors reacted to the UK's new finance minister scrapping tax cuts, and Europe considered moving to bring down energy prices.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.3 per cent, Germany’s DAX 0.9 per cent and Britain's FTSE 0.2 per cent.
ABC/Reuters
