A subdued trading session overnight in New York has left the Australian sharemarket facing a lower start on Thursday.
The benchmark ASX 200 index is likely to begin 0.4% below the previous close, according to Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) futures trading, which priced the June contract 38 points below the previous settlement at 8,703 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite indexes touched new closing highs on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), but the gains across the three main Wall Street equities indexes were relatively small.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched 0.4% higher, and Nasdaq Composite added 0.1% while the S&P 500 gained just 0.02% in quiet trading.
"After such a large run-up in the markets, it's not surprising to me that there is a little bit of a pause," Clark Capital Management Group chief investment officer Sean Clark was quoted as saying in a Reuters article.
"There's a lot of positives to look at right now. Even though the outperformers are really being driven by tech, AI (artificial intelligence) and AI-adjacent themes, I wouldn't discount the fact that the broad market is participating as well."
Australian shares took heart from lower-than-expected inflation figures on Wednesday, with the ASX 200 index adding 0.7% to 8,717.7 points as the odds firmed that the Reserve Bank of Australia will not change interest rates at its June meeting.
Headline annual inflation dropped to 4.2% in April, which fell short of market estimates of 4.4%.
Stocks going ex-dividend today include Technology One (ASX: TNE).
In fixed interest markets, the Australian Government bond yield curve steepened slightly as two-year rates eased by 0.04% to 4.569% and 10-year rates rose by 0.04% to 4.899% at the time of writing.
