Australian shares set to track decline on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to decline in early trading, tracking falls on Wall Street where fresh data raised prospects of a delay in interest rate cuts.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index closed 1.09% lower while the broader S&P 500 fell 0.88% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.16%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were down 30 points or 0.38% to 7907 points at 7:00am AEDT on Wednesday.

The context: All three major US stock indices fell and the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries hit a four-month high after data showed strong labour demand in the US economy, raising prospects that the Federal Reserve could delay cutting interest rates. Job openings rose in February, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed, adding to robust manufacturing data and higher consumer spending in February.

What they said: "We're back into a good news is bad news situation because recently the economic data that's been released, including today's JOLTS report, have been reflective of a fairly robust economy. Combine that with we've seen inflation becoming sticky, it pushes back the prospect of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts," Russell Price, chief economist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan told Reuters.