The ASX will likely set a new 52-week high this morning, with ASX Futures up 0.2% or 17 points after a powerful day of growth to set a new all-time high yesterday, surging 127.4 points.
Positive signals from the US Fed indicating potential for a rate cut in September gave US markets wind in their sails, with mega-cap tech stocks making a swift recovery after recent losses.
US and European markets
It was another day of tech stock surges in the US overnight with chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) gaining 4.4% on lifting its forecast for 2024 artificial intelligence chip sales, which boosted Nvidia right alongside it, surging 12.8%.
There was optimism ahead of Magnificent Seven earning reports, driving Meta up 2.5% with its report out overnight – the social media giant beat estimates for both revenue and profit – and lifting Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) 1.5% and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) 2.9%. Those reports will be available tonight.
Moving away from tech stocks, Boeing (NYSE:BA) gained 2% after naming an aerospace industry veteran as its new CEO and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) jumped 3.6% on robust second-quarter profits.
Overall, the Dow Jones rose 99 points or 0.2%, the Nasdaq jumped 2.6% or 452 points on strong tech performance and the S&P500 gained 1.6%, the latter two achieving the most single-day growth since February.
Over the month of July, the Dow gained 4.4% and the S&P500 1.1% but the Dow slipped 0.8%.
European markets also lifted on bullish tech stocks, which gained 2.6% overall. Dutch chipmaker ASML (AS:ASML) enjoyed a 5.6% leap after it was announced the company would be exempt from US rules on foreign chip equipment exports.
Annual inflation in Europe lifted to 2.6% from 2.5% against analysts’ expectations of a steady quarter.
The FTSE100 lifted 1.1% and 2.5% for the month of July, and the FTSE300 lifted 0.8% and 1.1% respectively.
Currencies and commodities
There were mixed movements against the US dollar overnight.
The Euro fell from US$1.0849 to near US$1.0825 at the US close, the Australian dollar rose from US$0.6487 to near US$0.6540 and the Japanese yen rose from 153.01 yen per US dollar to near JPY150.00 at the US close.
Oil prices lifted after the assassination of the Hamas leader gave fuel to simmering tensions and US crude stocks fell 3.4 million barrels compared to the expected 1.1 million.
Brent rose by US$2.09, or 2.7%, to US$80.72 a barrel and US Nymex added US$3.18, or 4.3%, to US$77.91 a barrel, marking the largest daily gain since October 2023.
Base metals recovered as the US dollar faltered. Copper Futures lifted 2.4% and Aluminium Futures 3%.
Gold lifted 0.9% or US$21.10 to US$2,473 an ounce after hitting an intraday record high of US$2,474.30 an ounce amid heightened Middle East tensions.
Spot gold was trading near US$2,447 an ounce at the US close and jumped over 4% for July.
Iron ore futures fell by US$0.31, or 0.3%, to US$105.94 a tonne on Wednesday due to weak manufacturing data from China.
On the small cap front
The ASX Small Ordinaries surged 2.44% or 73.1 points yesterday, handily beating the ASX’s strong 1.6% lift.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day on our website.