Australian shares set to shrug off Wall Street decline

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher despite Wall Street’s major indices declining as investors assessed the path for interest rates and softer earnings.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index closed 0.12% lower while the broader S&P 500 lost 0.58% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.15%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were up 20 points or 0.26% to 7665 points at 7:00am AEST on Thursday.

The context: US stocks slipped again in choppy trading as investors consider delays in interest rate cuts, a day after Fed Chair Jerome Powell backed away from providing guidance on when rates may be cut, saying instead that monetary policy needs to be restrictive for longer. Expectations for a cut of at least 25 basis points in June have shrivelled to 16.8%, and for a July cut to 46%, CME's FedWatch Tool showed. In the local market, traders will be focused on March unemployment data and the quarterly production report from miner BHP.