ASX set to lift after Wall Street gains

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open sharply higher after Wall Street’s main indices rose despite choppy trading, aided by gains in Nvidia and Salesforce.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 82 points or 0.98% at 8,429 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.19%, S&P 500 up 0.65%, Nasdaq up 0.22%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.79%, CAC 40 up 0.21%, DAX up 0.74%
• Spot gold: up 0.72% to USD2,669.69 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 2.06% to USD74.31/barrel, US WTI up 2.12% to USD70.21/bbl
• AUD: up 0.13% at 65.15 US cents
• Bitcoin: up 4.61% to USD98,591.84

The context: AI leader Nvidia rose 1%, a day after surpassing expectations for quarterly results, and projected fourth-quarter revenue above estimates. Alphabet shares fell more than 5% after the US Department of Justice asked a federal judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser to end its monopoly on online search. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims fell unexpectedly last week, suggesting a rebound in job growth in November, as investors closely monitor commentary from Federal Reserve officials before its mid-December meeting.

What to Watch: Annual general meetings from Wisetech, Lovisa and Arena REIT, among others.