Australian shares seen higher despite mixed Wall Street session

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher despite a mixed session on Wall Street, where investors weighed corporate earnings a day after the Fed chair dashed hopes of early rate cuts.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index is trading 0.12% higher, while the broader S&P 500 was down just 0.06% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.36%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading 50 points or 0.66% higher at 7583 points at 7:00am AEDT on Wednesday.

The context: US markets saw choppy trading after comments from some Federal Reserve officials reinforced chair Jerome Powell’s push back a day earlier against market hopes of early rate cuts. Semiconductor stocks, including heavyweights Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia were also trading lower, weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq. In the local market, focus will be on corporate earnings, with packaging major Amcor due to report.