Australian shares to fall after Wall Street slide

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open sharply lower as traders take a cue from a slide on Wall Street on Friday after strong jobs data reinforced bets for fewer rate cuts this year.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: down 71 points or 0.86% at 8,208 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones down 1.63%, S&P 500 down 1.54%, Nasdaq down 1.63%
• Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.86%, CAC 40 down 0.79%, DAX down 0.50%
• Spot gold: up 0.84% to USD2,689.76 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 3.69% to USD79.76/barrel, US WTI up 3.58% to USD76.57/bbl
• AUD: down 0.05% at 61.50 US cents
• Bitcoin: up 0.11% to USD94,728.07

The context: The main US stock indices closed in the red after data showed jobs growth unexpectedly accelerated in December while the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, stoking fresh inflation fears. That could force the Federal Reserve to take a more conservative stance on rate cuts this year. Traders now see the US central bank lowering borrowing costs for the first time in June and then staying steady for the rest of the year.

What to Watch: The focus this week will be on local jobs data to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.