Australian shares set to start higher after Wall St gains

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher, tracking overnight gains for major Wall Street indices as investors turned optimistic ahead of third quarter earnings in the US.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index rose 0.9%, while the broader S&P 500 gained 1.02% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.17%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading 48 points or 0.68% higher at 7095 points at 7:00am AEDT on Tuesday.

The context: US stocks ended sharply higher as sentiment turned optimistic at the start of earnings season, with major companies including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, electric vehicle maker Tesla and video-streaming pioneer Netflix due to report results this week. Investors are also betting that the Israeli war in Gaza will “remain contained”. In the local market, traders will be focused on the minutes of the RBA October board meeting that will be released at 11.30am AEDT.