A bright start to a new week is in prospect in Australia with the sharemarket set to rise when trading resumes on Monday following a strong end to last week on Wall Street.
The ASX 200 index should in by 0.33% when trading begins at 10:00 am AEDT (11:00 pm GMT Sunday), based on Australian Securities Exchange futures trading which quoted the March share price index contract 29 points higher than the last settlement at 8,714 points.
The major United States finished at new highs on Friday (Saturday AEDT) although fewer jobs than expected were added in December with the S&P 500 adding 0.7%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite rising 0.8%.
The S&P 500 was lifted by Broadcom and other chipmakers.
"On the overall AI (artificial intelligence) theme, investors are getting granular and picking the winners and losers in terms of sub-themes and individual names," Horizon Investments Head of Portfolio Management Zachary Hill was quoted in a Reuters story saying.
"We view that as a more positive development. It means that we're getting closer to the monetization phase, where people can actually see and touch the revenue enhancements that are going to come from this revolutionary technology."
The Australian sharemarket closed on Friday with the ASX 200 finished largely unchanged at 8,717.80 points as shares in Rio Tinto sank after it said it was in talks to acquire Glencore.
In fixed interest markets, the Australian Government bond yield flattened slightly as two year rates rose 0.08% to 3.999% and 10 year rates eased by 0.04% to 4.674%.
In economic news Australian household spending and job advertisements data are scheduled to be published.
