Australian shares set to rise amid Wall Street focus on earnings

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open higher despite mixed trading on Wall Street as concerns of a global trade war eased and investors turned their focus to corporate earnings.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 62 points or 0.74% at 8,439 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.65%, S&P 500 up 0.25%, Nasdaq down 0.02%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.61%, CAC 40 down 0.19%, DAX up 0.37%
• Spot gold: up 0.80% to USD2,865.51 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent down 1.92% to USD74.74/barrel, US WTI down 2.06% to USD71.20/bbl
• AUD: up 0.48% at 62.86 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 0.32% to USD97,618.84

The context: US stocks were mixed and benchmark Treasury yields dropped after mixed economic data and disappointing earnings from Google-parent Alphabet and AMD weighed on the Nasdaq.

On the economic front, a stronger-than-expected pick-up in ADP's private payrolls data was offset by a surprise deceleration in the services sector, while record high imports pushed the US trade deficit sharply wider.