Australia stocks shimmied higher in early Friday trading, with a sharply weaker Aussie dollar helping lift many of the resource names, except for the gold miners. The S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +0.34%had risen 0.5% about half an hour into the session, building on the previous day's 0.3% improvement, as the Australian currency AUDUSD, +0.31% bought 77.87 U.S. cents, more than a full cent lower than Thursday's level for a 1.4% drop on the day, according to FactSet. Among the miners, BHP Billiton Ltd.BHP, +1.07% BHP, +0.64% gained 0.8%, Rio Tinto Ltd. RIO, +0.89%RIO, +2.36% rose 0.9%, Oz Minerals Ltd. OZL, +0.26% OZMLF, +10.27% added a milder 0.3%, and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. FMG, +5.83% FSUMF, +7.93%jumped 4.9% as both Macquarie and RBC Capital Markets issued upbeat notes about the iron-ore extractor. But the gold names fell as Comex gold futures saw their biggest percentage drop in more than a year, with Evolution Mining Ltd. EVN, -9.09% CAHPF, -2.67% down 5.6%, St. Barbara Ltd. SBM, -8.70%tumbling more than 12% and Newcrest Mining Ltd. NCM, -1.02%NCMGF, -5.02% off a less severe 1.6% after hiking its full-year production forecast. Financials also improved for the most part, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA, +0.79% CBAUF, +0.06% up 0.8% and Macquarie Group Ltd. MQG, +0.65% MCQEF, +3.97% up 0.9% after overnight gains on the U.S. markets.
