ASX Futures are pointing to a 12-point loss as of 8:45 this morning, a 0.2% dip despite rallying US share markets gaining on optimism that the Fed may finally halt rate rises.
Despite the impending Thanksgiving Day holiday, the market rally continued to gain momentum.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s shares increased by 2% in anticipation of the holiday shopping season, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) enjoyed a 1.3% lift following the announcement of Sam Altman's return to lead OpenAI.
HP Inc (NYSE:NYSE:HPQ). saw a 2.8% jump in its shares after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that aligned with expectations, despite lower-than-anticipated revenue and Carnival (NYSE:CCL) Corp's shares advanced 1.9% as oil prices declined.
On the other side of the ledger, not all tech stocks flourished overnight. Nvidia shares dropped 2.5% following the chip designer's revenue forecast for the fourth quarter, which surpassed Wall Street expectations but included warnings of a potential sales decline in China due to US export restrictions.
Deere & Co experienced a 3.1% drop after its 2024 profit projection fell short of analyst estimates, influencing a similar 1.4% fall in Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT)'s stock.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 185 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 66 points, or 0.5%.
In the bond market, short-dated US government bond yields increased, reflecting the market's reaction to robust initial jobless claims data and expectations of a future rate cut by the US central bank.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond decreased marginally to 4.41%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury note edged up 2 points to 4.90%.
European markets had a more mixed run overnight.
The travel and leisure sector saw a 1.4% increase, while energy stocks dropped by 1.7% in response to falling oil prices.
UK-based software group Sage surged 13.3% after reporting a significant increase in operating profit and announcing a £350 million share buyback program.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 0.3%, whereas the UK's FTSE 100 index dipped 0.2%, largely due to a 2.1% fall in heavyweight UK-based energy stocks.
Currencies and commodities
The US dollar rallied in US and EU trading sessions.
The Euro declined from US$1.0918 to US$1.0852, stabilising around US$1.0885 by the close in the US.
The Australian dollar slipped from US65.68 cents to US65.22 cents, concluding the session near US65.40 cents.
Similarly, the Japanese yen weakened, moving from 148.36 yen per US dollar to JPY149.74, and settling around JPY149.60 at the close in the US.
Global oil prices continued their decline – partly due to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) unexpectedly postponing their meeting on production cuts from November 26 to November 30 and sparking uncertainty.
Contributing to the oil price drop, US crude oil inventories recorded a significant increase of 8.7 million barrels last week, exceeding the survey estimate of a 1.16-million-barrel rise.
Brent crude price fell by US49 cents or 0.6% to US$81.96 a barrel, while the US Nymex crude price decreased by US67 cents or 0.9% to $77.10 a barrel.
Base metal prices also retracted.
Copper futures declined by 1.3%, as investors chose to cash in on the gains from the recent rally before the US holiday. Aluminium futures dropped by 1.4%.
In the precious metals market, the gold futures price decreased by US$8.80 or 0.4% to US$1,992.80 an ounce, with spot gold trading around US$1,989 an ounce at the US close.
In contrast, iron ore futures showed a marginal increase of US29 cents or 0.2%, reaching a nine-month high of US$129.84 a tonne.
On the small cap front
The ASX Small Ordinaries lost 23.6 points or 0.87% yesterday, outpacing the ASX200’s more moderate losses of 4.6 points.
You can read more about the following throughout the day.
Kingfisher (LON:KGF) Mining Ltd (ASX:KFM) expands rare earth element carbonatites at Mick Well to more than 13.5 kilometres of strike.
Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA, OTCQB:NVAAF) has identified a large surface gold anomaly at the Revelation prospect of the Estelle Gold Project in Alaska, having followed up on a record 1,290 g/t gold sample.
Ionic Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ASX:IXR, OTC:IXRRF) has unearthed thicker, higher-grade results in the latest round of drilling at the Makuutu Heavy Rare Earths Project, with intercepts up to 9.9 metres at 1,163 parts per million total rare earth oxide from 4.2 metres of depth.
Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX:STM) has identified an extensive gold-silver opportunity at El Palmar, with surface sampling returning 6.2 g/t gold and 269 g/t silver.
Elixir Energy Ltd (ASX:EXR) is continuing to drill the Daydream 2 Well at the Grandis Gas Project, with the intermediate section of the well now drilled to 2,915 metres