Australian shares to edge higher after Wall Street gains

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to tread water in early trading after solid gains on Wall Street, where investors cheered a strong US corporate earnings season.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index is trading 0.46% higher, while the broader S&P 500 hit a fresh record high after climbing 0.82%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.91%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading just 3 points or 0.01% higher at 7571 points at 7:00am AEDT on Thursday.

The context: US markets mainly rose on Wednesday on the back of continuing strong corporate earnings including from Chipotle, Ford and Uber. Traders were also monitoring policymaker comments for clues on the interest rate outlook after Fed chair Jerome Powell ruled out a March interest rate cut earlier this week. In the local market too, investors will be focused on corporate earnings, with AGL and Transurban among the companies reporting results on Thursday.