Share prices on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) are expected to open higher on Monday at the start of a holiday-shortened week after stocks in the United States continued to recover from a volatile week.
The ASX 200 index should begin about 0.5% above the last close at 10 am AEDT (11 pm GMT Sunday) with the March share price index (SPI) futures contract last quoted 41 points over the previous settlement at 8,640 points.
On Wall Street, stock prices ended higher on Friday to wrap up a second successive day of gains due to a rebound in technology shares benefitting from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, the S&P 500 put on 0.9% and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3%, bringing the gains across the week to 0.1% for the S&P 500 and 0.5% for the Nasdaq, with the Dow edging down 0.7%.
Micron Technology stock jumped sharply after it significantly exceeded market expectations with its quarterly results and outlook on Thursday.
"Tech in general, particularly the AI-related companies, came under a fair amount of pressure and when Micron reported and the market reacted the way that it did, there’s the idea that maybe people can come back to these [stocks]," Globalt Investments Senior Portfolio Manager Thomas Martin was quoted saying in a Reuters story.
The Australian market had finished the last day of the week in positive territory due to rises in financial and technology companies, with the S&P/ASX 200 gaining 0.5% to 8,628.2 points.
The ASX is closed for the Christmas Day and Boxing Day public holidays on Thursday and Friday, with trading on Wednesday shortened for Christmas Eve.
In fixed interest, yields rose at the long end of the curve with two-year rates on Australian Government bonds rising 0.27% to 4.057% while 10-year rates dropped 0.21% to 4.788%.
