Investing.com - Australian stocks are predicted to experience further losses at the opening bell on Wednesday, following a varied performance on Wall Street overnight.
On Tuesday, the local sharemarket saw its largest daily fall in six weeks, plunging by 1.3% as traders prepared for the US Federal Reserve to resist immediate rate cuts at this week's policy meeting.
In New York, banking stocks pulled the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower overnight. Conversely, the NASDAQ Composite and S&P 500 experienced a rise, driven by a 7.3% surge in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares due to optimism about plans to enhance its devices with AI capabilities.
Apple closed the session at $US207.15, reaching a market cap of $US3.18 trillion, closely followed by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at $US3.22 trillion, and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) at $US2.97 trillion.
A well-received US government sale of $US39 billion of bonds boosted optimism that policymakers will shift towards rate cuts later this year.
Ahead in the week, market participants will be closely monitoring the release of the May US CPI report, scheduled for 10.30pm on Wednesday, and the Fed’s policy decision at 4am on Thursday.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-year rates were at 4.334% while 2-year rates were at 4.071%.