The Australian sharemarket is set to open higher after a raised export earnings forecast and strong increases on Wall Street.
ASX futures are up 0.7% to 8,626. The ASX 200 closed flat at 8,588.2 yesterday, with six of 11 sectors finishing higher.
Australia has lifted its forecast for commodity export earnings by 4% amid persistently high gold prices, and expects the value of raw material shipments to be A$253 billion in the year to June 2026. Gold prices had decreased 0.34% to A$6,551.93 by 9 am AEDT.
In the United States, the S&P 500 was up 0.8%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.4%.
Wall Street’s rally was fuelled by a better-than-expected U.S. consumer price index (CPI), which showed prices were up 2.7% in the 12 months to November. Markets had expected a 3.1% increase.
The CPI release was delayed following the 43-day government shutdown in October and November. October’s CPI data was cancelled.
While lightening inflation could boost the case for further rate cuts next year, the Federal Reserve’s projections indicate just one cut in 2026 after lowering rates by 0.25% last week.
“We're going to get data, but we're going to have to look at it carefully and with a somewhat sceptical eye,” Fed chair Jerome Powell said last week about incoming delayed economic data releases.
U.S. technology stocks also rallied after a multi-day slump, with shares in chipmaker Micron surging 10.1% on a blowout profit forecast. Micron’s projected earnings per share of US$8.42 were almost double LSEG estimates.
Micron’s progress buoyed other chipmaking and artificial intelligence-related stocks, with Nvidia rising 1.9% and AMD up 1.5%.
