The Australian sharemarket is primed to rocket from a 10-month low on Tuesday after comments by United States President Donald Trump spurred a slide in crude oil prices and a rebound by stocks in New York.
A 1.79% surge by the ASX 200 index was flagged in futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), with the June contract quoted 151 points above the previous settlement at 8,567 points at the time of writing.
This would be more than enough to erase the losses from the previous day when the benchmark fell for a ninth straight day, with the continuing conflict between the United States and Iran driving the index to its lowest closing level since May 2025.
The three major U.S. stock indexes closed more than 1% higher on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) after Trump postponed strikes against Iranian power plants in the wake of "productive conversations" with Tehran.
Oil prices plunged on the comments, with West Texas Intermediate futures and Brent crude falling more than 10%.
Trump's comments about the talks were, however contradicted by Iran's Parliamentary Speaker, who posted on social media that no discussion had been held with the U.S.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4%, the S&P 500 added 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite put on 1.4%.
"You never know who to believe but it does appear that Trump is trying to start discussions with somebody in Iran to resolve the war despite strong denials from Iran,” Ingalls & Snyder Senior Portfolio Strategist Tim Ghriskey was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
“This has caused significant optimism in stock prices today with the market up strongly although off its highest levels because of the Iranian denials.”
The ASX 200 had fallen 62.5 points or 0.74% to 8,365.9 on Monday as investors fretted about the conflict worsening.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields continued to firm as two-year rates rose 0.45% to 4.718% and 10 year rates added 0.14% to 5.043% at the time of writing.
