Australian shares opened lower on Thursday after weakness in United States technology stocks dragged Wall Street modestly lower overnight, with losses restrained by falling inflation worries and gains in Meta Platforms.
The ASX 200 index was down 0.5% by 10:30 am AEST (12:30 am GMT).
The Australian market got a cautious lead-in from the United States where the three main benchmarks dropped as investors lowered exposure to expensive semiconductor stocks ahead of the June non-farm payrolls report due later on Thursday (Friday AEST).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.03% while the S&P 500 dropped 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7%, with gains in Meta Platforms limiting the decline of the latter two indexes.
Comments from Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh that inflation risks had eased also supported the market.
Investors also remained cautious about talks between the United States and Iran, especially with a long U.S. holiday weekend coming up, Ingalls & Snyder senior portfolio strategist Tim Ghriskey was quoted as saying in a Reuters article.
Important monthly U.S. jobs data is due out on Thursday, with the market closed on Friday ahead of the 4 July holiday.
The Australian market made a poor start to the new financial year with the ASX 200 Index dropping 0.6% to 8722.9 points on Wednesday due mostly to weaker banking and consumer staples sectors.
Morgans Financial private client adviser Lachlan Walsh said investor interest was increasing in cyclical sectors stocks like healthcare, which had suffered two years of poor returns, and consumer discretionary stocks affected by rising interest rates.
On the bond markets, the Australian Government bond yield flattened as two-year interest rates rose 1.60% to 4.503% while 10-year rates were flat at 4.808% at the time of writing.
