The Australian sharemarket looks set to open on a positive note following a brisk session on Wall Street overnight, which saw the S&P 500 gain 0.87% to 5,010 points, the Dow move 0.67% to 38,239 points and the Nasdaq climb 1.1% to 15,451 points.
ASX futures were up 1.07% to 7,644 points just after 8:00am AEST this morning.
A much better week?
It was the start of a much better week as both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended a six-day losing streak.
US investors are still looking for clues on when the US Federal Reserve is likely to begin cutting interest rates. Fed officials are now in a blackout period ahead of the April 30 to May 1 meeting.
Megacap tech led the way in the US, with giants Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) advancing between 0.5% and 1.5%.
Nvidia did better, up 4.4% after a 10% drop in the previous session.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in turmoil
EV behemoth Tesla dropped 3.4%, hitting a 15-month low, following price cuts in key markets including China and Germany and earlier price reductions in the US.
Meanwhile, Tesla boss Elon Musk is gearing up for a fight with the Australian Government over his refusal to take footage of last week’s violent attack in a Sydney church off his social media platform, X.
The footage isn’t available in Australia but the government believes this is insufficient and is pushing for a worldwide removal.
Ford was up 6.1% as investors await its earnings report, due Wednesday.
In Europe, there was a collective sigh as tensions eased in the Middle East and a majority of industry sectors were in positive territory. The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.6%.
Of note was Portuguese oil firm Galp, which soared 20.6% to a 16-year high after it said its Mopane field off the coast of Namibia could host at least 10 billion barrels of oil.
The UK FTSE 100 index jumped 1.6% to near record highs, thanks in part to a weaker pound along with positive investor sentiment on rate cuts and metal prices.
Currencies and commodities
Currencies were mixed against the greenback overnight, with the Euro falling from US$1.0668 to US$1.0623 and ending near US$1.0650.
The Aussie dollar lifted from 64.24 US cents to 64.53 US cents and was near 64.50 US cents by the end of the day. The Japanese yen eased from 154.59 yen per US dollar to near JPY154.85 at the US close.
Oil prices softened as the risk of Middle East tensions affecting supply appeared to subside, following a tense week last week that saw prices jump.
Brent crude slid 29 US cents or 0.3% to US$87.00 a barrel, while US Nymex crude also finished down 29 US cents or 0.3% to US$82.85 a barrel.
Base metal prices also eased. Copper futures were steady and riding at near two-year highs but aluminium futures were down 0.7%.
Gold futures fell US$67.40 or 2.8% to US$2,346.40 an ounce on Monday, their biggest intra-day decline in over a year, as the global finger appeared to lift off the safe-haven trigger following last week’s conflict fears.
Spot gold was trading near US$2,326 an ounce at the US close.
Iron ore futures were up 37 US cents or 0.3% to US$108.62 a tonne.
Market snapshot
- Australian dollar: +0.03% at 64.51 US cents.
- FTSE: +1.62% to 8,023 points.
- EuroStoxx: +0.6% to 4,364 points.
- Spot gold: +0.16% to $US2,330/ounce.
- Brent crude: -0.12% to $US87.17/barrel.
- Iron ore: +0.66% to $US111.50/tonne.
- Bitcoin: +0.18% to $US66,667.
Source: ABC.
What’s happening in small caps?
The small ordinaries index was up 1.53% on the previous session to 3,011.30.