A strong finish on Wall Street may not be enough to allow Australian shares to continue their winning streak with the benchmark index expected to open lower on Friday.
The S&P/ASX 200 June share price index futures contract was quoted 32 points below the previous settlement of 8,130 when it last traded on Thursday, providing a guide on the likely direction of share prices on the final day of the week.
This was despite U.S. stocks rallying on Thursday (Friday AEST) on the back of strong results from Microsoft and Meta, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0.2%, the S&P 500 putting on 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite rising 1.5%.
This could snap a six-day winning streak in Australia where the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 8,145.6 on Thursday, but this was in defiance of the futures' direction, so perhaps things might turn around.
ASX-listed stocks in focus today include Block (ASX: SQ2), which released earnings results, and Iluka Resources (ILU), Iress (IRE) and Kelly Partners (KPG), which hold annual general meetings, according to CommSec.
On fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields fell with 10-year rates down 0.26% to 4.185% and two-year rates off by 0.30% to 3.312%.
