Australian shares are expected to finish the week on a high by starting stronger in the wake of new records in New York.
The S&P/ASX 200 share price index (SPI) September contract was trading 27 points (0.31%) higher than the previous settlement at 8,611 points, at the time of writing.
The tone was set on Wall Street where markets rallied to record highs as NVIDIA continued to surf the artificial intelligence (AI) wave closer to a US$4 trillion valuation and despite jobs data reducing the chances of a United States interest rate cut this month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each gained 0.8% but were surpassed by the Nasdaq Composite’s 1% increase, with the latter two again reaching new peaks.
This extended the U.S. retail investor-driven rally to three weeks.
"We are seeing a real bout of irrational exuberance; the stock market is very biased towards optimism," Man Group Chief Market Strategist Kristina Hooper was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
"But there's some basis for it. I think there is some level of relief because the jobs report was not as weak as it could have been."
The Australian share market finished virtually unchanged on Thursday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index ending down 1.90 points at 8,595.8.
On the Australian fixed interest markets, the yield curve steepened as 10-year Treasury bond rates added 0.17% to 4.219% while two-year bonds lost 0.30% to 3.285%.
