The weak end to 2025 on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is set to continue on Tuesday, with the benchmark index expected to open a shade lower.
The ASX 200 should start trading 0.07% down at 10 am AEDT (11 pm GMT Monday), according to futures trading, which quoted the March share price index contract six points below the previous settlement at 8,711 points.
The direction was set on Wall Street, where the main indices ended weaker on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) as large technology stocks gave back some of last week's gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.5% at the start of the last trading week of the year.
Most tech and artificial-intelligence-related stocks fell with Nvidia dropping 1.2% and Palantir Technologies 2.4%.
"This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it'll turn out to be a buying opportunity," Haverford Trust Director and Head of Investment Strategy Hank Smith was quoted by Reuters as saying in this story.
"A big reason for that is the top tech names, excluding Tesla, do not have challenging valuations given their growth rate, the moat around their business and their financial strength, which is unparalleled."
The Australian market had finished weaker on Monday with tech companies leading the way down as the ASX 200 ended 0.4% lower at 8,725.7 points.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields rose across the curve with two-year rates lifting by 0.12% to 4.036% and 10-year rates adding 0.13% to 4.740%.
