Australian shares are expected to open higher on Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street as a strong earnings report from Microsoft renewed investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence stocks.
ASX 200 futures were up 1.1% to 9,010, pointing to a positive start for the local market.
Wall Street rallied strongly overnight as Microsoft's upbeat forecast boosted confidence in AI-related companies, driving broad gains across technology and semiconductor stocks.
The Dow added 1.2%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.7%, and the Nasdaq surged 2.8%.
Microsoft jumped 15.5%, adding US$450 billion to its market value after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly results and delivering a positive outlook for AI-driven growth.
However, Meta Platforms fell 8% after its earnings raised concerns over the potential returns from the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Amazon gained more than 8% after the market close as its forecasts exceeded expectations, while Apple dropped 4% after quarterly revenue failed to significantly surpass Wall Street estimates.
The Australian sharemarket ended Thursday's session lower, falling 70.9 points, or 0.8%, to 8,967.7, with nine of the 11 sectors closing in negative territory.
Among local companies, Fortescue is scheduled to release its June quarter production report on Friday morning, ahead of its full-year results due on 24 August.
Overseas, Bank of Japan policymakers are set to meet, while Japan will also release June data on unemployment, industrial production and retail sales.
On the bond markets, the 10-year yield rose 0.1% to 4.958%, while two-year rates declined 0.3% to 4.532%.
