Australian shares were set to fall for the third successive day on Wednesday in a global sell-off prompted by concerns about a new trade war.
The worries were sparked by new tariff threats from United States President Donald Trump against Europe.
The ASX 200 index was expected to be 0.6% below the previous close when trading resumed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) at 10:00 am AEDT (11:00 pm GMT Tuesday).
ASX futures trading had priced the March share price contract of the benchmark 50 points below the previous settlement at 8,738 points at the time of writing.
The three main Wall Street indexes suffered their biggest falls in three months on Tuesday (Wednesday) after Trump warned eight European nations they faced escalating tariffs unless they supported the United States taking over Greenland.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.8% to 48,488.6, the S&P 500 dived 2.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite plunged 2.4%.
“So basically a revival of the sell America theme last night,” Chief CommSec Economist Ryan Felsman told Azzet.
But Harris Financial Group managing partner Jamie Cox said he was not seeing indications that investors were fleeing the market yet.
"I'm not at the point yet where I'm willing to say what is happening with Greenland, and the resurgence of the tariff threat back and forth, is going to precipitate a correction in the equities markets," he was quoted in a Reuters article as saying.
The Australian market had closed lower for a second consecutive session on Tuesday as Trump’s tariff threats over Europe’s rejection of his attempt to take over Greenland unnerved investors, with the S&P/ASX 200 losing 0.7%.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields fell, with two-year rates dropping 0.12% to 4.172% and 10-year rates easing 0.01% to 4.784%.
