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The ASX 200 has closed at a record high on Monday following the appointment of Scott Bessent

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The Australian market rallied during early trading as markets digest the latest appointment from President Elect Donald Trump.

The ASX has closed above 8400 points for the first time, in a broad market rally as investors reacted positively to the latest announcement by US president-elect Donald Trump.

The benchmark ASX 200 index gained 23.80 points or 0.28 per cent to reach 8417.60, although it did fall 44 points from its high in the last hour of trading.

The broader All Ordinaries rose 28.10 points or 0.33 per cent to finish Monday’s trading at 8661.20 points.

The ASX 200 has closed at a record high on Monday following the appointment of Scott Bessent

Markets react positively to the announcement of Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

The Australian dollar rose 0.8 per cent to a two-week high of US66.50c as the US dollar dived against most currencies.

IG’s market analyst Tony Sycamore said the market was reacting positively to Mr Trump’s nomination of legendary hedge fund chief Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.

While Mr Bessent has been publicly supportive of tariffs, he has also suggested that Mr Trump’s tariff threats are a “negotiating tool” aimed at extracting concessions from other countries.

“Trump got it right with the appointment of the Treasury Secretary and that has permeated through every asset class,” Mr Sycamore said.

“This guy is a very good appointment for me, as he is market savvy. Markets reacted positively to Mr Bessent being on record as saying tariffs should be placed gradually.”

US futures markets rose with the S&P 500 futures rose 0.4 per cent and the US 10-year Treasury bond yield fell 6 basis points to 4.34 per cent in response to Mr Bessent’s nomination over the weekend.

On the Australian market, the rally was broad based with seven of 11 sectors ending higher along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index. A-REIT was the best performing sector, gaining 1.59 per cent and 1.76 per cent for the past five days. This came off the back of expectations of further rate cuts.

The ASX 200 has closed at a record high on Monday following the appointment of Scott Bessent

At one stage 10 of the 11 sectors were up before late selling saw the market drop. . Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Market darlings Zip Co and Guzman Y Gomez were the top performing stocks, up 4.36 per cent and 4.27 per cent respectively.

Elsewhere APRA’s decision to leave the minimum mortgage serviceability buffer at 3 per cent weighed on the banking sector, with only market leader CBA trading higher.

“The buffer provides an important contingency for a range of economic shocks – not only for rises in interest rates – over the life of the loan,” APRA said.

“It also factors in unforeseen changes in a borrower’s income or expenses, which we have seen play out recently as cost-of-living pressures mount.”

Following the announcement, NAB, Westpac and ANZ fell between 1.2 to 1.3 per cent, while CBA bucked the trend rising $1.11 or 0.70 per cent to close out at $160.14.

Mr Sycamore said the gold and oil prices were negatively impacted as there was hope for an easing of Middle East tensions after Axios reported that Israel and Lebanon are on the verge of a ceasefire agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

Following falling geopolitical tensions gold fell about 2 per cent and Brent crude fell about 0.7 per cent.

The fall in gold price saw Bellevue Gold fall 4.07 per cent to be one of the weaker performers on the ASX 200.

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