Shares in Australia are poised to follow the direction of Wall Street by opening slightly lower on Thursday.
A fall in two of the three major stock indexes in New York has set the direction of the ASX 200 index which is expected to begin just 0.08% down, with the March share price index futures contract quoted seven points below the previous settlement at 8,677 points.
This would erase most of the gains chalked up on the previous day as lower than expected inflation data buoyed investor spirits.
The Nasdaq Composite index was the highlight of trading overnight in New York as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down after earlier reaching new highs.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.34% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.94% while the Nasdaq ascended 0.16%.
The S&P was undermined by falls in JPMorgan, Blackstone and other financials, while Nvidia and Alphabet lifted the Nasdaq as investors shifted toward artificial-intelligence (AI) related stocks.
"Investors have come into 2026 with a similar playbook to last year: Buy tech and forget about it. Rumours that the AI trade was done turned out not to be true," Longbow Asset Management Chief Executive Officer Jake Dollarhide said in a Reuters article.
The Australian sharemarket had finished higher on Wednesday with the ASX 200 adding 0.2% to 8,695.60 points after the consumer price index rose 3.4% in the 12 months to November, down from 3.8% in October and below consensus estimates of 3.6%.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields dived with two year rates down 1.54% to 4.021% and 10 year rates lower by 1.84% to 4.690%.
