Hopes for an end to the Middle East conflict that lifted United States stocks overnight are expected to also boost Australian shares on Tuesday.
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) futures trading indicates the ASX 200 index will rise by 1.33% when trading resumes at 10:00 am AEST (12:00 pm GMT Monday) with the June contract priced 119.00 points over the previous settlement at 9,069 points.
The three major U.S. equities benchmarks rose on Monday (Tuesday AEST) after U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wanted a deal but that he would not allow the Islamic state to have a nuclear weapon.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%, the S&P 500 added 1%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.2% as investors overlooked the failed peace talks between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend to push prices to session highs on the close.
"And so there seems to be some desensitisation around these back and forth talks with negotiations on, negotiations off, especially in the midst of this ceasefire, which seems to be holding for the moment," Janney Montgomery Scott's chief investment strategist, Mark Luschini, was quoted as saying in a Reuters article.
The stronger opening flagged by ASX futures trading means Australia will more than recoup losses on Monday when Australian shares closed lower with the ASX 200 falling 0.4% to 8,926.0 points.
Australian stocks in focus today include Westpac (ASX: WBC), which has released an announcement about the impact of the Middle East conflict and the accounting treatment of the pending sale of the RAMS mortgage portfolio.
Economic news scheduled for today includes the NAB Business confidence survey for March and Westpac Consumer Confidence index.
In fixed interest markets, the Australian Government bond yield curve steepened a little with two-year rates falling 0.28% to 4.681% and 10-year rates unchanged at 4.984% at the time of writing.
