A sharply lower finish on Wall Street has set the scene for share price losses by Australian companies when the sharemarket opens on Tuesday.
All three stock indices ended down in New York on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) as investors awaited results from artificial intelligence giant NVIDIA and retailers, along with key economic data.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is expected to begin 0.6% below the previous close, based on Australian Securities Exchange futures trading, which quoted the December contract 52 points below the previous settlement at 8,607 points.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.18%, the S&P 500 shed 0.92% and the Nasdaq Composite gave away 0.84%
The latest quarterly reporting season is set to close this week, with results from retailers Walmart, Home Depot and Target, while NVIDIA is scheduled to report on Wednesday.
September jobs data is due to be published this week in the wake of the end of the U.S. government shutdown, which had denied the market key statistics.
50 Park Investments Chief Executive Adam Sarhan said investors were waiting for NVIDIA earnings and "a look at the consumer”.
“You have a consumer that is potentially getting weaker, not stronger," he was quoted in a Reuters article as saying.
The Australian sharemarket finished flat on Monday, with the S&P/ASX 200 ending up just 1.9 points at 8,636.4, as seven of the 11 sectors closed in the green, led by information technology.
Corporate news includes full-year results from TechnologyOne (ASX: TNE) and second-quarter results from James Hardie (ASX: JHX).
In fixed interest markets, yields on Australian Government bonds rose across the curve with two-year rates increasing by 0.05% to 3.717% and 10-year rates adding 0.04% to 4.483%.
