Shares had a positive feel in pre-opening futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after a night of mixed fortunes on Wall Street.
At 9.20am (AEDT) the December 2024 contract of the ASX share price (SPI) 200 index was trading at 8,335, nine points (0.1%) higher.
Earlier in the United States the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% as Tesla shares rocketed ahead and the S&P 500 put on 0.4% but the Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.1%.
Tesla jumped 5.6% after a Bloomberg report suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s team might ease regulations on self-driving vehicles.
Among technology stocks, strong price gains were recorded by Apple, Netflix and Advanced Micro Devices but the market focus is on Nvidia, which is set to release its earnings on Wednesday.
Announcements in Australia that market participants may be watching include building activity data, which is important in the context of the national housing shortage, and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest monetary policy minutes, given the intense continuing focus on interest rates and inflation.
Both are scheduled to be released at 11.30am (AEDT).
On bond markets, at 9.40am (AEDT) 10-year Australian Government bonds were yielding 4.568%, up 0.006 (0.13%), while two-year rates were 0.005 higher (0.12%) at 4.089%.