Investing.com - The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is expected to open lower, influenced by Wall Street's losses following mixed profit reports from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG). The fluctuating oil market and a rising two-year bond yield to 5.125% further contribute to this forecast.
ASX 200 Futures were down by 23.5 points or 0.3% to 6842.5 as of 8:40 am AEDT. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar depreciated by 0.7% overnight, and Bitcoin increased by 1.2%.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver a significant speech at 7.30 am AEDT. The U.S. GDP results are also on the horizon. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict the GDP to have expanded at an annual rate of 4.5% in the last quarter, more than twice the previous quarter's pace and the fastest since the end of 2021.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell by 1%, and the NASDAQ Composite underperformed. Alphabet's shares dipped 9.1% to a three-month low due to its underperforming cloud business. In contrast, Microsoft's shares rose by 2.7%. Meta's (NASDAQ:META) earnings report, expected after the closing bell, is anticipated to present the best results in two years.
Today's annual general meetings (AGMs) include prominent businesses such as Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF), Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW), Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (ASX:RWC), APA Group (ASX:APA), JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX:JBH), Boral Ltd. (ASX:BLD), South32 Ltd (ASX:S32), Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES), and Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB).
In the commodities market, gold increased by 0.4%, Brent crude remained steady, and iron ore eased 0.2%. The 10-year yield in the U.S. stood at 4.958%, in Australia at 4.828%, and in Germany at 2.899%.
The U.S. earnings season is in full swing, with nearly a third of the companies in the S&P 500 expected to post third-quarter results. Of the 146 companies that have reported so far, 80% have exceeded earnings expectations. Analysts now predict a year-on-year earnings growth of 2.6% for the S&P 500 in the July-September period, up from 1.6% at the beginning of the month.
Strategists at Citi stated that the PMI data is a clear indication that a recession is not imminent. They continue to believe that the U.S. economy will enter a recession next year, but in the meantime, the risks are balanced towards further Fed hikes.