Australian shares set to track Wall Street weakness

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower after weaker trading on Wall Street, where investors anxiously awaited key inflation reports that could influence the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision next week.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: down 25 points or 0.3% at 8,385 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.14%, S&P 500 down 0.23%, Nasdaq down 0.35%
• Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.86%, CAC 40 down 1.14%, DAX down 0.08%
• Spot gold: up 1.18% to USD2,691.65 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent down 0.25% to USD71.96/ barrel, US WTI unchanged at USD68.37/bbl
• AUD: up 0.88% at 63.83 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 1.11% to USD96,410.72

The context: The November reading of the US Consumer Price Index, due on Thursday AEDT, is among the last major reports ahead of the Fed's meeting on 17-18 December. If it comes in line with estimates of a slight 2.7% increase, investors expect the Fed to lower rates by 25 basis points next week. The Producer Price Index report is due on Friday AEDT.

Meanwhile, the tech sector was dragged down by a 7.7% drop in Oracle after the cloud computing company missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter results, but Google-parent Alphabet rose 5.3% after unveiling a new-generation chip.