Australian shares set to track Wall Street gains

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start the week higher, tracking all-round gains on Wall Street on Friday, while investors also focus on Bitcoin with the world’s most traded cryptocurrency on the cusp of the $100,000 milestone.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 52 points or 0.62% at 8,472 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.97%, S&P 500 up 0.35%, Nasdaq up 0.16%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 1.38%, CAC 40 up 0.58%, DAX up 0.92%
• Spot gold: up 1.74% to USD2,716.19 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 1.27% to USD75.17/barrel, US WTI up 1.63% to USD71.24/bbl
• AUD: up 0.52% at 65.34 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 1.23% to USD96,583.34

The context: All three major US indices posted gains on Friday, with investors taking comfort from business activity data showing robust economic activity, which has been boosted by hopes for lower interest rates and more business-friendly policies from president-elect Donald Trump's administration next year. However, AI bellwether Nvidia slipped 3.2%, while Alphabet dropped another 1.7% as the US Department of Justice argues against Google monopolising online search.

What to Watch: Annual general meetings from Southern Cross Austereo, Pro Medicus and VG1 among others.