The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower on Monday, following a negative lead from Wall Street where stocks fell sharply, after the Santa Clause rally that kicked off earlier in the week fizzled out.
The S&P 500 shed 66.75 points, or 1.1% to 5970.84 with around 90% of stocks trading in the red, snapping a five-session winning streak, but the benchmark index did edge out a 0.7% gain for the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 333.59 points, or 0.8% to 42,992.21, but this marked the first time in four weeks the index finished the week in the green, while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 298.33 points, or 1.5% to 19,722.03.
Mega-cap technology stocks faced a broad selloff, led by a 5% fall for EV maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Shares of AI-darling Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) dropped 2%, while Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) all came under pressure.
Apple started the session on the cusp of becoming the first company to ever reach a market value of more than US$4 trillion, but could not get over the line.
Shares of data analytics software provider Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR), which only joined the Nasdaq 100 this week, declined 3.7%, while Super Micro Computer (SMCI) tumbled 5.2%.
Meanwhile bucking the broader market selloff trend, shares of Kingsoft Cloud Holdings (NASDAQ: KC) surged 23.2% to $12.57 amid strong demand for AI and cloud solutions, and Honda (NYSE: HMC) extended its rally, climbing 1.4% after the carmarker announced on Monday that it had officially entered merger talks with fellow Japanese automaker Nissan.
The ASX futures are pointing to a 29 point, or 0.35%, fall to 8,228 points at 8.44am AEDT on Monday, with two trading days left in December, ahead of another holiday-shortened week, with the local market closing at 14:10 (AEDT) on Tuesday to close out the last trading day of the year.