The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower on Monday as traders reassess their interest rate expectations for the United States after Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered a hawkish message, vowing to stamp out inflation.
ASX 200 futures were down 36 points, or 0.4%, at 9,009.
After a week of turmoil in the bond market that pushed yields to multi-decade highs, Warsh sought to reassure investors on Friday by reiterating that the world's most influential central bank remains committed to returning inflation to its 2% target.
U.S. markets ended Friday's session lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average easing 0.02%, the S&P 500 losing 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite falling 0.5%.
"Why the market is modestly reacting is he (Warsh) is very adamant that the 2% inflation target is going to remain. He is reiterating the hawkishness, but in a more of a consistent way than an incremental way," Mark Hackett, chief market strategist for Nationwide, was quoted as saying in a Reuters story.
"There's been somewhat misguided thoughts among investors that this would soften a little bit. Clearly, that's not the case."
The Australian sharemarket rose on Friday, supported by strong results from Nvidia and Salesforce that lifted Wall Street and boosted local technology stocks.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 54.1 points, or 0.6%, to 9,092.3, with seven of the 11 sectors ending higher.
For the week, the index advanced 0.4%.
On the bond markets, the local 10-year yield was flat at 5.086%, while two-year rates fell 0.1% to 4.712%.
