ASX opens higher as DroneShield, Fisher & Paykel rally; Temple & Webster sheds 27%
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More news: Australian shares started strongly this morning, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 93.5 points, or 1.1%, to 8,630.5 at 10:30am AEDT. All 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
DroneShield (+14%) was the top performer on the ASX 200, extending gains since announcing a $5.2 million contract in Europe on Tuesday.
Fisher & Paykel (+9%) also soared after upgrading its full-year guidance.
Meanwhile, Temple & Webster saw its shares plunge 27.3% after releasing a softer-than-expected trading update this morning.
Australian shares to climb after new US data points to Fed rate cut, Nvidia sinks
The news: Australian shares are poised to rise this morning after Wall Street's three main indices advanced overnight, as a raft of delayed economic data boosted hopes for an interest rate cut when the US Federal Reserve meets next month.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 85 points, or 0.99%, to 8,634
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.43%, S&P 500 up 0.80% and Nasdaq up 0.45%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.83%, DAX up 0.97% and FTSE 100 up 0.78%
- Spot gold: down 0.05% to USD4,134 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 1.30% to USD62.55/bbl and US WTI down 1.26% to USD58.09/bbl
- AUD: up 0.11% at 64.69 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 1.50% to USD86,950.
The context: US stocks reacted positively to a flurry of economic data, delayed due to the recent government shutdown.
The Commerce and Labor departments released September reports on retail sales and producer prices respectively, which showed spending softened and inflation cooled during the period.
The data helped cement bets that the Fed will cut interest rates in December, pushing stocks higher.
Meanwhile, Nvidia shares temporarily fell as much as 7% — before trimming losses to around 2.8% — on reports that Facebook owner Meta Platforms is in talks to spend billions of dollars on Google's AI chips.
In the local market, Lynas Rare Earths, Harvey Norman and Liontown Resources all have their annual general meetings today.
