Australian shares are set to open a new week strongly higher, buoyed by a bounce back in New York.
At 9 am AEDT (10 pm GMT Sunday) the S&P/ASX 200 March share price index contract was up 85 points (+1.09%) from the previous settlement at 7,867.00 points, providing an early indication of what is in store for the 10:00 am AEDT opening.
If this proves to be the case, then appropriately on St Patrick’s Day, which celebrates Ireland's patron saint, trading screens will show Irish green rather than red ink.
A more buoyant mood was created in New York on Friday when investors seeing value helped push up stock indices with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 1.7%, the S&P 500 surging 2.1% and the Nasdaq Composite soaring 2.6%.
These were the biggest one-day percentage gains by the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since 6 November, the day after the U.S. presidential election, albeit across the week it was the worst performance since 2023.
This meant the S&P 500 had officially undergone a “correction”, marking a 10% drop from its record high just 16 days prior.
The catalyst was United States President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on trading partners, including China, Canada and Mexico, which threatens to push the U.S. into a recession, an outcome share markets fear.
The Australian sharemarket had closed 0.5% firmer at 7,789.7 points on Friday, turning around a three-day losing streak and avoiding an end in correction territory.
According to CommSec, HUB24 and Ramelius Resources trade ex-dividend today.
On the bond markets, the 10-year and two-year Treasury yields fell 0.50% and 0.21% to 4.417% and 3.776%, respectively.
