The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is expected open higher on Wednesday on the back of a firmer close in New York and ahead of key Australian inflation data.
The ASX 200 index should begin 0.67% over the previous close at 10:00 am AEDT (11:00 pm GMT Tuesday) based on futures trading which quoted the March contract 61 points higher than the previous settlement at 9,042 points.
Stocks on Wall Street sent a positive signal across the Pacific by closing higher on Tuesday (Wednesday) in a rebound from an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven sell-off the previous day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.8% higher, the S&P 500 also added 0.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite put on 1%.
"We're in for a period of time where the market will be going through some uncertainty and today we're seeing a little bit of a buy on the dip," Keator Group Managing Partner Matthew Keator was quoted saying in this Reuters story.
"We're going to see day-to-day movements but overall, there's so much unknown in terms of how AI ends up being additive or disruptive to some of these companies."
The Australian sharemarket gave up early session increases to end a little down on Tuesday, with the ASX 200 dipping 0.04% to 9,022.3 points.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will publish January consumer price index data at 11:30 am AEDT, with the headline rate expected to fall from the 3.8% in December to 3.7% and the trimmed mean steady at 3.3%.
This is important for the next interest rate decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which tracks inflation closely.
Companies reporting their results today include Fortescue (ASX: FMG), Woolworths Group (ASX: WOW), Domino’s Pizza Enterprises (ASX: DMP) and WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC).
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields rose, with two-year rates up 0.17% to 4.197% and 10 year rates 0.04% higher at 4.697%.
