James Gruber

US markets roar to new record highs.

But the Aussie market is set to fall.

Plus, it's Budget Week, so what are investors keeping their eye on?

Good morning, I'm James Gruber.

And I'm Gillian Bowen.

It's Monday the 11th of May and this is the morning edition of the CommSec Market Update.

But the records keep coming for Wall Street.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both finished up on Friday with new record highs.

The optimism around company earnings again helping investors put aside any worries about fresh attacks in the Gulf and uncertainty around peace.

We'll get into that more shortly, but the figures show it's the strongest US quarterly earnings season in more than four years.

And that's in the face of US crude being up more than 60% for the year.

Global Oil Prices Guild jumped as much as 3% on Friday after a day in which the US and Iran traded airstrikes but paired gains as traders hoped for a longer pause in the fighting that has shut shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futures settled up 1.2% to US$101.29 a barrel.

Base metal prices were higher on Friday.

Copper futures hit a three-month high, up 1.9%, after Freeport McMoran flagged a slight delay in the recovery of production at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, aluminium futures were up 0.8% on continued supply concerns.

Gold futures firmed on optimism over a potential end to the Iran conflict after Thursday's skirmishes.

The futures settled up 0.5% to US$4,731 an ounce.

Meantime, iron ore futures were flat at US$110.93 a tonne, as high shipments from Brazil and the Simundu mine weighed on prices.

So the S&P 500 and NASDAQ jumped on Friday, boosted by gains in NVIDIA, SanDisk and other AI-related stocks, while a stronger-than-expected jobs report pointed to labor market resilience.