The Australian sharemarket is set to recoup some of its previous-day losses with prices expected to be marked slightly higher at the opening of trading on Tuesday.
An 0.14% rise in the ASX 200 index is in prospect in the wake of a firmer night on Wall Street and as investors await the 2026 Federal Budget, to be handed down on Tuesday night by Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
This is the indication from futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), which priced the June share price index contract 13 points above the prior settlement at 8,746 points at the time of writing.
A positive lead-in came from New York, where two of the three major benchmarks set new peaks, helped by continued strength in stocks leveraged to artificial intelligence (AI) and despite warnings of an AI-bubble from fund manager Michael Burry.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.2% higher while the S&P 500 added 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite put on 0.1% to both end at new highs on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
Semiconductor stocks outperformed other companies as the PHLX Semiconductor index leapt 2.6%.
"The semis and AI infrastructure trade has taken on a life entirely of its own," Baird investment strategy analyst Ross Mayfield was quoted in a Reuters article as saying.
"And there's so much momentum and chasing to get in on some of these names that it seems almost somewhat divorced from any sort of like headline or announcement."
The Australian market had closed 42.60 points or 0.5% lower at 8,701.8 points on Monday as eight of the 11 sectors ended in the red after the Middle East conflict flared again and CSL (ASX: CSL) plunged on a profit downgrade.
Other ASX-listed companies worth watching include Life360 (ASX: 360), which has announced record first-quarter results.
In Australian fixed interest markets, the government bond yield curve steepened as two-year rates fell 0.73% to 4.733% and 10-year rates rose 0.04% to 5.014% at the time of writing.
