Investing.com - The Australian Stock Exchange eased 0.3% on Tuesday, mirroring the minor weakness exhibited by Wall Street overnight.
In the commodities market, Cocoa has seen a phenomenal rise, crossing the $US9000 per tonne threshold for the first time due to a severe supply shortage. Chocolate manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to secure cocoa beans, causing futures to rise by approximately 50% this month alone. Cocoa prices have more than doubled this year, driving the cost towards $US10,000 per tonne, a figure that was unimaginable a few months ago. Interestingly, cocoa has now become more expensive than the benchmark industrial metal, copper.
Notable stocks to watch include Goodman Group (ASX:GMG), which is set to host an investor meeting. Additionally, Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) and Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) shares will trade ex-dividend.
ASX futures are down by 29 points or 0.4% to 7836 as of 7am AEDT. The Australian dollar has risen slightly by 0.4% to 65.39 US cents. Bitcoin also recorded an increase of 6.8% to $US70,742 at 7.36am AEDT.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ Composite all fell modestly by 0.4%, 0.3%, and 0.3%, respectively. Tech giants showed mixed results with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) up by 1.1%, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) down by 1.4%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down by 0.8%, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) up by 0.8%, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) down by 0.4%, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) up by 0.5%, and Meta down by 1.3%.
In the commodities market, spot gold increased by 0.3% to $US2171.65 per ounce, Brent crude rose by 1.7% to $US86.90 per barrel, and iron ore saw a minor increase of 0.2% to $US108.40 per tonne.
The 10-year yield in the US stood at 4.25%, while Australia and Germany recorded 4% and 2.37% respectively.
The slight weakness in US equities marks the start of a shortened trading week, with the market's attention centered on the personal consumption data that will be released on Friday. Wall Street will remain closed on Good Friday.
Today's agenda includes the release of the Westpac consumer sentiment data for March at 10.30am local time. Internationally, the US will release data on February durable goods orders, January FHFA house prices, S&P CoreLogic CS house prices, as well as the March Richmond Fed index and consumer confidence index.