Share prices are expected to barely budge when trading begins on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Thursday despite a higher close on Wall Street driven by profit expectations for technology giant NVIDIA.
The price benchmark is expected to be little changed at 10:00 am AEST (12:00 am GMT Wednesday) with futures trading showing the S&P/ASX 200 September share price index (SPI) contract just three points above the previous settlement at 8,938.
As in previous days the market’s direction over the course of the day will be determined by the response to company results with Wesfarmers (ASX: WES), Qantas (ASX: QAN), Medibank (ASX: MPL) and South32 (ASX: S32) among those reporting today.
United States share markets firmed on Wednesday ahead of quarterly results from Nvidia as the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to a new closing high, and the Nasdaq Composite put on 0.2%.
Shares in the world’s largest company eased after the results, which were released after the market closed, with investors concerned about the outlook for its data centres and sales to China but, prior, many brokers were enthusiastic about the stock.
"Nvidia is going to produce humongous revenue gains over the next nine months, on top of an already humongous revenue base," Argent Capital Portfolio Manager Jed Ellerbroek was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The ASX 200 had closed 0.28% higher on Wednesday, helped by higher gold prices, a broadly positive response to corporate results and despite higher than forecast inflation data, with the S&P/ASX finishing at 8,960.5.
In fixed interest markets, yields on Australian Government bonds fell across the curve, with rates down by 0.09% to 3.343% for two-year paper and 0.16% to 4.309% for 10-year paper.
