ASX to open higher as tech drives S&P 500 record high close
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher, after Nvidia led a tech rally on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed at a new record high.
The numbers: The Dow Jones rose 0.33%, the broader S&P 500 gained 1.04%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lifted 1.51% by market close.
In the local market, ASX 200 futures were up 46 points or 0.59% higher at 7,815 points at 8:00am AEDT on Friday.
The context: Wall Street's three major indices all made gains on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both climbing to intraday record highs. A 4.5% rise in Nvidia shares led gains across six of the "magnificent seven" megacaps.
Investor optimism was buoyed by comments by US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell in the second part of his two-day congressional testimony, who signalled that the central bank is "not far" from gaining enough confidence to "dial back the level of restriction" to make rate cuts possible.
New US data on unemployment benefit claims, private payrolls, job openings and quit rates also showed that the jobs market remains solid despite softening.
In Europe, the European Central Bank held rates at a record 4% high for a fourth consecutive Governing Council meeting. However, ECB president Christine Lagarde echoed Powell's comments by telling reporters that "we clearly need more evidence, more detail" before making rate cuts, asserting "we will know a little more in April, but we will know a lot more in June."
Elsewhere, Japan will release its January current account figures at 10:50am AEDT, and China’s National Bureau of Statistics will release its February consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) numbers at 12:30pm Saturday AEDT.
In the local market, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release multiple job-holders figures for December, and labour account data for the December quarter at 11:00am AEDT.
The source: Reuters
