The Australian sharemarket is set to begin lower on Monday after a mixed session in New York on Friday (Saturday AEDT) as United States investors look toward quarterly results from Nvidia this week and worry that interest rate cuts may be deferred.
The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is likely to open 0.2% below the previous close at 10 am AEDT (11 pm GMT Sunday) with the S&P/ASX 200 share price index December contract quoted 17 points under its previous settlement at 8,626 points.
If sustained across the day, the lower start puts the major ASX benchmark on track to register a fifth successive session of price falls in the wake of a large dive on Friday.
On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite index ended a three-day losing streak on Friday as technology stocks rebounded from a sharp sell-off but the other two major indices ended lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%, the S&P 500 lost 0.05% while the Nasdaq added 0.1% as investors sought stocks leveraged to artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing.
The market has reduced the probability the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) cuts rates by 25 basis points in December to under 50% from 67% last week, according to a Reuters report citing the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
The market is also eagerly awaiting quarterly results from AI chipmaker Nvidia on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) for evidence of whether concerns about stretched valuations for AI-related stocks are valid.
"We've got a huge event next week with Nvidia," Horizon Investments Head of Research and Quantitative Strategies Mike Dickson was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
"If Nvidia disappoints, they will be punished. But I also think that - kind of like you're seeing today - you'll see dip buyers come back in pretty quickly and stabilise things."
The Australian market ended at its lowest point since 4 August on Friday as the S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 1.4% down at 8,634.5 points.
In fixed interest markets, the Australian Government bond interest rate curve steepened as yields dropped on two-year paper by 0.08% to 3.726% and rose on 10-year paper by 0.56% to 4.472%.
