Australian shares are expected to defy a stronger performance overnight in New York with the benchmark index set to pull back from highs and open about 0.2% lower on Thursday.
As the reporting season gets underway the path of the S&P/ASX 200 index will be influenced at least partly by the performance of companies reporting today, such as AMP (ASX:AMP).
Futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) points to the index falling 0.2% when trading begins at 10 am AEST (12 am GMT Wednesday).
At the time of writing , the S&P/ASX 200 September share price index (SPI) contract was trading 20 points below the previous settlement at 8,786.
Stocks in the United States ended higher on Wednesday, driven by the Nasdaq Composite as Apple shares rose 1% on news of a new manufacturing investment and were helped by mainly positive corporate earnings announcements.
The Nasdaq jumped 1.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average put on 0.2% and the S&P 500 gained 0.7%.
"Earnings continue to come in better than expected," CFRA Research Chief Investment Strategist Sam Stovall was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Australian market set new records on Wednesday with gains in the Materials and Energy sectors lifting the S&P/ASX 200 by 0.8% to 8,843.7 at the close.
On fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields fell with 10 year rates dropping 0.42% to 4.242% and two year easing 0.23% to 3.344%.
