Australian shares are set to defy positive signals from the United States and snap a three day winning stake by opening slightly lower on Wednesday, ahead of a two day Christmas holiday market closure.
The benchmark ASX 200 index is expected to fall 0.1% when trading begins at 10 am AEDT (11 pm GMT Tuesday), according to futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
This is based on the March share price index (SPI) contract being quoted 12 points below the previous settlement at 8,768 points on a shortened last trading day before the Christmas Day and Boxing Day public holidays on Thursday and Friday.
This was despite higher closes for the fourth successive day on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 touched a new peak on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) in the wake of economic data releases and as technology and artificial intelligence-related shares continued to perform strongly.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average put on 0.2%, the S&P 500 added 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6%.
Growth-oriented company share prices and bond yields rose in the wake of the gross domestic product numbers showing strong growth in the United States economy in the third quarter, which reduced the chances of an interest rate cut in January.
"The bond market didn't like this news," Wedbush Securities senior vice president Stephen Massocca was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Australian sharemarket made it three up days in a row on Tuesday with the ASX 200 rising 1.1% to 8,795.7 points.
Companies of interest today include DroneShield (ASX: DRO), which extended its rebound on Tuesday, and Goodman Group (ASX: GMG), which strengthened on news of a new data centre deal.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields rose across the curve with two-year rates lifting by 0.07% to 4.045% and 10-year rates adding 0.06% to 4.768%.
