Australian shares to edge higher after choppy Wall Street session
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start marginally higher after a mixed session on Wall Street that saw two of the three main indices pare back gains to close lower.
The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.77% higher, while the broader S&P 500 lost 0.25% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.79%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were up just 6 points or 0.08% to 7,766 points at 7:00am AEST on Friday.
The context: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreated from early gains as investors evaluated recent economic data.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined last week, but the latest data showed that the overall number of people on benefits rolls reached the highest level since January, indicating that the US job market continues to cool. Another set of data showed US single-family homebuilding fell in May amid continued high mortgage rates.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari said it would take a year or two to get inflation back to 2%, as wage growth might still be too high, spurring worries of interest rates staying elevated for longer. Money markets currently see a 58% chance of a 25-basis-point rate cut by the US central bank in September.
The source: Reuters
