The chances of equities investors in Australia enjoying a hat-trick of up days on Wednesday appear slim after United States stock indices closed slightly lower.
A flat opening looked in store at 9.30 am AEST (10.30 pm GMT Tuesday) when the S&P/ASX 200 June share price index futures contract was trading three points lower at 7,792.
U.S. stocks ended a little off on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) amid continued worries about tariffs but positive banking results limited the downside.
Trade concern nerves were frayed by news that the Trump administration would investigate imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as part of a bid to impose tariffs on these sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.4%, the S&P 500 ended off 0.2% and the loss by the Nasdaq Composite was just 0.1%.
The Australian sharemarket put together a second successive rise on Tuesday as the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 7,761.7.
On fixed interest markets, 10-year Treasury bond yields rose 0.9% to 4.302% and two-year yields added 0.9% to 3.321.
Stocks in focus include Star Entertainment (ASX: SGP) which resumes trading after a long suspension, Bank of Queensland (ASX: BOQ), which has announced its half year results, and Ampol (ASX:ALD), (ASX: RIO), Iluka (ASX: ILU) and Karoon Energy (ASX: KAR), which have released quarterly updates.
CommSec said other news scheduled for today included the Westpac Leading Index.
