Australian share prices are set to begin the final day of the week on a bright note with the ASX 200 index expected to open 0.50% higher on Friday despite a mixed finish in New York.
This is based on trading in the March share price index futures contract which was quoted 44 points above the previous settlement at 8,734 points at the time of writing.
Two of the three major Wall Street indexes closed higher on Thursday (Friday AEDT) as defence stocks rose after President Donald Trump called for an increased military budget but technology stocks fell on concerns about the valuations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.55% and the S&P 500 put on just 0.01% while the Nasdaq dropped 0.44% due to worries about the high prices of stocks related to artificial intelligence (AI).
"While AI is still hot, there are going to be winners and losers," B. Riley Wealth Chief Market Strategist Art Hogan was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Australian sharemarket closed higher on Thursday despite a fall in materials stock prices with the ASX 200 ending 0.3% higher at 8,720.80.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields fell further with two year rates down 1.30% to 3.9631% and 10 year rates lower by 0.81% to 4.652%.
