Australian shares gave back most of a midweek rally on Friday but still finished higher for a third straight week, leaving the S&P/ASX 200 a little more than 2% below its 52-week high as investors turn to a heavy run of local rate signals.

The benchmark fell 64.6 points, or 0.71%, to 9,082.2 on Friday, Nov. 13, and the broader All Ordinaries lost 69.7 points, or 0.75%, to 9,204.5, the Australian Associated Press reported. The ASX 200 was up 0.68% over the five sessions, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s markets blog, which put the index 2.3% under its one-year peak.

The week before, the index had closed at 9,020.8 after a 1.2% rise that AAP described as its second weekly gain in a row and its fifth in six weeks. Last week's rise therefore made it three in a row. That advance came even though the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted its cash rate to 4.85% on Nov. 3.

How the ASX 200 week unfolded

Most of last week's gain came in a single session. The ASX 200 added 8.9 points to 9,029.7 on Monday, when miners and energy stocks offset weaker banks, AAP reported. It then closed at 9,153.2 on Wednesday after a 24.2-point rise, AAP said, which implies a jump of roughly 99 points on Tuesday.

Banks were the soft spot early in the week. All four major lenders closed lower on Monday, when ANZ fell 3.2% after reporting full-year results, according to ABC. On Wednesday the big four retreated again after figures showed new home lending fell by its largest quarterly amount since records began in 2002, AAP said, while miners recovered in the afternoon as metals prices rose.

Thursday was little changed, and Friday brought the reversal. Shares opened lower after Wall Street fell on the resignation of Nvidia's chief executive and a jump in oil prices, and never recovered. By the close, 147 of the index's 200 stocks had fallen and 44 had risen, ABC said.

Miners and banks lead Friday's ASX selloff

Materials was the weakest major sector on Friday, down 1.7%, followed by financials, off 0.7%, and information technology, down 0.6%, according to ABC. Utilities rose 1.5%, with telecommunications and consumer discretionary stocks slightly higher.

Commodity prices did not help. Spot gold touched about US$3,881 an ounce early in the Australian day, its lowest in more than a year, before recovering to about US$3,914 by late afternoon, ABC reported. Iron ore futures in Singapore were flat at US$91.6 a ton.

Uranium producer Paladin Energy was the index's worst performer, falling about 17% after it returned from a trading halt following a A$525 million capital raise, according to The Bull, an Australian markets publication, which put the drop at 17.59%. ABC put the closing decline at 16.9%. The Bull said the proceeds are intended to speed up development of the company's Patterson Lake South project in Canada.

Lendlease fell more than 7% on a day the property group began redeeming about A$1.22 billion of bonds, ABC said. Weebit Nano, IperionX and Smartgroup each lost 6% or more. Xero, ResMed, Computershare, APA Group and PLS Group were the best performers, all up between 1.6% and 2.1%, the broadcaster said.

Rates and currency markets pointed the same way. Australia's 10-year government bond yield was up 9 basis points at 5.13% on Friday afternoon, ABC reported. The Australian dollar was at 67.99 U.S. cents late in the session, after sliding during the day to its lowest since late January and a weekly loss of about 0.8%, the broadcaster said.

Related coverage: Australian bond yields after the RBA's split decision.

RBA minutes, wages and jobs data in the week ahead

The coming week tests whether the market can keep climbing with borrowing costs at an 18-year high.

Minutes of the RBA's November meeting are due on Tuesday, AAP reported. Three of the nine board members voted against the increase, according to AAP, so the record should show how close the argument was and what would be needed for another move.

Views on that differ. Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis said the central bank is probably finished raising rates, citing a softer housing market and early signs of slower consumer spending, according to ABC. A February increase would need a material new inflation shock, ABC said, summarizing a Westpac note.

Two data releases follow. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to publish the September-quarter Wage Price Index on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and October labor force figures on Thursday, Nov. 19, both at 11:30 a.m. Canberra time, its release calendar shows.

Economists expect annual wage growth of 3.4%, up from 3.2% in the June quarter, and an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.7%, AAP reported. NAB economist Josh Copeland told AAP he expects employment growth above 20,000 for the month.

Offshore, U.S. stocks ended Friday mixed. The S&P 500 lost 0.42% to 7,560.87 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.91%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.09%, AAP said. Australian share futures were down 14 points, or 0.15%, pointing to a soft start on Monday.

For investors elsewhere in Asia, the Australian market's limited weighting in artificial intelligence stocks has been its main cushion during the global technology selloff, as AAP noted earlier this month. The sectors that dominate the index, banks and miners, are the ones most exposed to this week's rate and wage numbers.