Australian shares set to track gains on Wall Street
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher, tracking Wall Street where Nvidia’s bumper forecast helped lift growth stocks.
The numbers: The Dow Jones index is trading 1.1% higher, after breaching 39,000 points for the first time during the session. The broader S&P 500 rose 2.04% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.9%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading 36 points or 0.47% higher at 7,607 points at 7:00am AEDT on Friday.
The context: US stocks were led by a 15% surge in Nvidia after the chip designer forecast a three-fold boost in first-quarter revenue on strong demand for its AI chips. Nvidia's earnings were a major test for the AI-fueled rally on Wall Street. Some analysts had cautioned that disappointing results could spark a steep selloff among technology stocks.
Meanwhile, bets are tilted towards June as the starting point for the first rate cut from the Federal Reserve after data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a tight labour market.
Locally, the spotlight remains on company earnings, with Aussie Broadband, Brambles, Monash IVF and Pexa among those reporting on Friday.
What they said: "The whole package of Nvidia's reporting lends a bedrock of credibility for other AI and technology companies as it clearly appears that Nvidia and AI are here to stay," Andre Bakhos, president at Ingenium Analytics told Reuters.
The source: Reuters
