The Australian sharemarket is expected to regain most of its previous day losses on Thursday, buoyed by a stronger finish on Wall Street.
Futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) indicated a 0.5% rise on opening, with the S&P/ASX 200 share price index (SPI) September contract trading 41 points above the previous settlement at 8,571 points, at the time of writing.
Stock indices in New York closed higher on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) with the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite hitting a record high of 20,611.3 points as the world’s largest company NVIDIA briefly reached a US$4 trillion valuation.
Wall Street was also boosted by Federal Reserve meeting minutes that raised hopes that inflation pressures from U.S. tariffs would not threaten interest rate cuts this year.
This was despite an increase in trade concerns after President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric and added extra countries to the list of tariff targets.
"The market is becoming a little desensitised to the bad news of tariffs,” SWBC Chief Investment Officer Chris Brigati was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5%, the S&P 500 added 0.6% and the Nasdaq’s increase to its new closing peak was 0.9%.
The Australian market fell on Wednesday in the aftermath of the shock decision not to cut interest rates on Tuesday and continuing tariff worries, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 0.6% to 8,538.6 points.
Announcements today include Netwealth Group ‘s (ASX: NWL) quarterly update, the monthly business turnover indicator and the CBA household spending indicator.
In the Australian fixed interest markets, the Australian Government bond yield curve flattened with 10-year rates falling 0.19% to 4.291% and two-year rates rising 0.24% to 3.386%.
