The ASX200 is set for a strong opening to trading this morning – ASX Futures are up 60 points or 0.76% as of about 8:30 am AEDT.
This upward momentum comes on the tailwinds of some record highs in the US markets overnight, with the S&P500 hitting another new ceiling of 5,248 points after jumping 0.86% in last night’s session.
The small cap Russel 2000 index also made good progress, adding 2.13% overnight even as spot gold also reached a new ceiling, hitting US$2,215.3 with a 0.73% spike.
While some weakness in iron ore drove it down 0.4% to US$109.84, overall, the market conditions are pointing to a solid day of trading on the ASX for this shorter pre-Easter week, with a fresh record high in reach.
What happened overnight?
US and European markets
There was strength across the board in US sectors overnight, with not a single one falling into the red. Utilities and Real Estate made a particularly large impact, adding 2.75% and 2.42% respectively.
There were movements in some of the larger stocks for utilities – NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) gained 3.84% to its stock price, Dominion Energy 3.94% and Sempra (NYSE:SRE) 2.9%.
As for Real Estate, Public Storage (NYSE:NYSE:PSA) added 4.65%, Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) 3.59% and Digital Realty Trust 3.38%.
The US Healthcare, and more specifically biotechnology sector, is also showing strong signs of recovery after a difficult few years, adding 1.41%.
Cellular medical company Mesoblast shares leapt 45% after the FDA allowed a Phase 3 trial to proceed, while regenerative medicine company Osteopore made a splash when its orthopaedic products were approved in Singaporean and Vietnamese markets, rocketing the stock up 1,043% intraday after the news.
It wasn’t all good news, however – semiconductor and AI heavyweight Nvidia shed 2.5% as mega cap grow stocks took a hit, weighing on the Nasdaq.
The Dow Jones gained 478 points or 1.2%, while the Nasdaq added 0.5% or 84 points.
In Europe, the markets were much more subdued.
Sweden’s Riksbank offered some relief as it set the groundwork for interest rate cuts as soon as May.
The EU central bank held rates at 4% and indicated inflation was now normalising enough to consider rate cuts in the coming months.
Retail fashion brand H&M was one of the top movers on the European bourses, adding 15.2% after reporting stronger than expected first-quarter profit. The Retail sector added 2.5% overall.
Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn) hit a six-year high with a 2.7% jump after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:NYSE:MS) upgraded the financial services provider to “overweight”.
The FTSE300 added just 0.1% to touch a new record, while the FTSE100 remained mostly unchanged.
Currencies and commodities
Our basket of currencies were mixed against the US dollar overnight.
The Euro fell from US$1.0838 and was near US$1.0825 at the US close.
The Aussie rose from US65.12 cents to US65.30 cents, while the Japanese Yen lifted from 151.83 yen per US dollar to near JPY151.35 at the US close.
Oil fell for a second day, as US crude inventories rose by 3.2 million barrels while gasoline stocks lifted by 1.3 million barrels last week.
That compared to an expected decline of 1.3 million barrels of crude and 1.7 million barrels of gasoline, drove prices down.
Brent fell 0.2% to US$86.09 a barrel while US Nymex dropped 0.3% to US$81.35 a barrel.
Base metals were also down – copper futures shed 0.2% while aluminium futures fell 0.4%.
On the small cap front
The Small Ordinaries added 0.29% yesterday, falling a little short of the ASX200’s 0.44% but notching solid progress, nonetheless.
You can read about the following and more on our website throughout the day.