The Australian sharemarket is set to open flat, with oil prices rebounding and Wall Street’s artificial intelligence stocks sliding again.
ASX futures were flat at 8,556. The ASX 200 closed 0.2% lower at 8,585.2 yesterday.
Oil prices rebounded overnight as the United States escalated tensions with Venezuela, with Brent crude up 2.8% and West Texas Intermediate up 2.9% at the time of writing.
“I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday. Venezuela’s government has called the move an “extravagant threat” and a violation of international law.
The price of oil had neared its lowest point in almost five years before the ASX opened on Wednesday, sending shares in Woodside Energy down 2.4% and shares in Santos down 1.2%.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 dropped 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.8%. Both are at three-week lows.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also declined 0.5%. The technology indexes for all three shed more than 2%.
The latest round of losses came after the Financial Times reported that Oracle’s largest data centre partner, Blue Owl, would not invest in the company’s planned US$10 billion data centre project in Michigan. Oracle’s shares dropped 5.4%.
Other AI-related stocks also dipped, with Nvidia down 3.8%, AMD falling 5.3%, and Broadcom declining 4.5%.
Among company news, local market participants will be digesting annual general meetings from ANZ and Elders in today's session.
