The Australian sharemarket is expected to open a little higher on Friday despite the main stock indices in the United States finishing lower overnight.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is expected to start about 0.1% above the prior close, snapping a three-day losing streak, when it opens at 10 am AEDT (11 pm Thursday GMT).
This is based on the December share price index contract being quoted 13 points over the prior settlement at 8,913 points, at the time of writing.
Stocks on Wall Street finished down on Thursday (Friday AEDT) as Microsoft and Meta fell over concerns about spending on artificial intelligence and amid reduced expectations of interest rate cuts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched 0.2% down, the S&P 500 lost 1% and the Nasdaq Composite gave up 1.6%.
Meta shares suffered their biggest one-day drop in three years after forecasting "notably larger" capital expenditure, while Microsoft sagged after warning that spending would rise.
Burrell Stockbroking wealth adviser Adam Dight said the U.S. market had fallen as the Meta result disappointed investors but it raised the question of whether investors would use this as an opportunity to invest money held in cash.
“What will be interesting to see how much of this $7 trillion on the sidelines comes in and buys the dip,” Dight said.
“Everyone's been waiting for this big correction and any time markets go higher they get more and more bearish but we’ve learnt in the past if you don’t buy the dips you miss everything.”
Hopes of another U.S. interest rate cut in December sank when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said this was not a "foregone conclusion."
"Investors are in a risk-off mood after the market's been on a run. The S&P 500's near a record high but these technology earnings didn't meet the elevated expectations," 248 Ventures Chief Strategist Lindsey Bell was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Australian market had closed lower on Thursday, for the third straight day, as the S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.5% to 8,885.5 points.
Stocks to watch today include Origin Energy (ASX: ORG), which has issued a quarterly update, along with interest rate-sensitive sectors and stocks affected by the higher-than-expected inflation rate this week, which lowered the chances of another rate cut this year.
The Australian Government bond yield curve continued to steepen as two-year rates dropped 0.75% to 3.578% and 10-year rates gained 0.99% to 4.300%, at the time of writing.
