Investors in the Australian sharemarket are set to rule off their books for another financial year at the end of a day expected to begin flat on Monday.
At the time of writing the S&P/ASX 200 share price index September contract was quoted just five points (0.05%) above the previous settlement at 8,521 points, indicating a starting level barely changed from Friday's close.
The Australian market closed out a flat week on Friday as the S&P/ASX 200 losing 0.4% to 8,514.2 points.
“I expect a lot of funny pricing today,” Burrell Stockbroking wealth adviser Adam Dight said of trading by fund managers aiming for top-quartile investment performance.
Dight cited the pricing on Friday of stocks like CSL (ASX: CSL) and Resmed (ASX: RMD), which dropped 2.4% and 2.5% respectively, and CAR Group (ASX: CAR), which gained 3.1%, without announcements.
The Australian market has risen 9.4% in the 2025 financial year to date, having recovered robustly from selling that pushed it to lows in April after United States President Donald Trump flagged big increases in tariffs on imports.
But a positive tone was set on Wall Street where stocks finished higher on Friday (Saturday AEST), consolidating a week of gains, with two of the three main indices ending at record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each added 0.5% with the latter two closing higher than ever before and the former standing 2.7% off its 4 December peak.
The catalysts for price strength are hopes of an end to trade uncertainty and expectations of interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve. These expectations have supported high risk assets like equities.
"Investors are riding momentum and looking for breakouts," Horizon Investment Services Chief Executive Officer Chuck Carlson was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
"They don't want to get caught on the wrong side of this thing. Many investors already have missed out."
Stocks fell earlier in the session after Trump announced the end of U.S.-Canada trade negotiations. However, they rebounded when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was reported by Bloomberg as saying a U.S.-China trade framework had been finalised.
Financial markets have priced in a 76% chance the Fed will cut rates in September and a 19% likelihood of a reduction as early as July, according to FedWatch.
In Australia's fixed interest markets, the yield curve is steeped with rates rising 1.28% to 4.182% for 10-year Treasury bonds and falling 0.52% to 3.252% at the two-year end of the curve.
