Australian shares are set to open higher on Thursday following a stronger session in the United States where technology stocks rebounded from a sell-off ahead of key earnings from Nvidia.
A 0.6% rise in the S&P/ASX 200 index is expected based on futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) where the December share price index was quoted 53 points over the previous settlement at 8,516 points.
This direction was dictated by Wall Street, where stocks bounced back from four successive down days on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) as investors awaited the latest quarterly results from the world’s largest company.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up by 0.1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.4% and the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite beat both with a 0.6% advance.
Nvidia put on 3% during regular trading, but Ingalls & Snyder Senior Portfolio Strategist Tim Ghriskey said the stock was "almost guaranteed to be volatile" once the results were published.
"When you're the biggest company out there, you're sort of in the headlights, and it often does not make sense how the stock reacts in the short term," he was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Australian sharemarket reset five-month lows on Wednesday as the S&P/ASX 200 ended 0.25% lower at 8,447.9 with seven of the 11 sectors in the red.
Among the stocks in focus today may be Droneshield (ASX: DRO), whose share price plunged on Wednesday after the CEO resigned, and Worley (ASX: WOR), New Hope Corporation (ASX: NHC) and Insignia Financial (ASX: IFL), which hold annual general meetings .
In the bond markets, the upward track of yields on Australian Government paper was maintained with two-year rates increasing by 0.71% to 3.694% and 10-year rates adding 0.54% to 4.461%.
