Australian shares are expected to open slightly down on Monday morning as trading resumes on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after the Christmas Day and Boxing Day public holidays in the last week of 2025.
The benchmark ASX 200 index is expected to fall 0.17% when trading begins at 10 am AEDT (11 pm GMT Sunday), according to futures trading, which quoted the March share price index contract 15 points below the previous settlement at 8,765 points.
This was after Wall Street ended nearly flat on Friday (Saturday AEDT) with all three major stock indices ending down a little and in doing so snapping a five-session rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.04%, the S&P 500 lost 0.03% and the Nasdaq Composite edged down by 0.1%.
However, they rose over the week, and the S&P 500 briefly touched a new high.
"We had a very strong five-day rally, so in a way we're just simply catching our breath today after the holiday," Carson Group Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick was quoted as telling Reuters in this story.
"This is only day two of the official Santa Claus rally period, so we still have some time, and we think there's going to be a little more upward bias going forward."
The Australian sharemarket had finished lower on Wednesday, the last trading day before the Christmas holiday break, with the ASX 200 finishing 0.4% off at 8,762.7 points on the day but adding 1.6% over the shortened-week.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields rose across the curve with two-year rates lifting by 0.12% to 4.035% and 10-year rates adding 0.17% to 4.747%.
