Australian shares set to track gains on Wall Street
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start higher, tracking gains on Wall Street, where weekly jobless claims data offered fresh hope for interest-rate cuts.
The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.85% higher, stretching its winning streak to seven straight sessions, while the broader S&P 500 gained 0.51% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.27%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were up 23 points or 0.3% at 7,767 points at 8:00am AEST on Friday.
The context: All three major US stock indices were bolstered by the encouraging data, which showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased more than expected to a seasonally adjusted 231,000 last week.
US Federal Reserve policy has been the main driver of investor sentiment in 2024. Renewed hopes the central bank will cut rates have pushed the Dow to its biggest rally since December.
Declining US Treasury yields also supported stocks since higher rates offer investors less risk while also making borrowing to fuel growth more expensive. The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note has dropped to 4.46%, down from 4.7% two weeks ago.
The source: Reuters
