Australian shares to gain as Wall Street edges higher

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised for early gains after stocks continued to edge higher on Wall Street. Investors are betting on an early rate cut in the US next year.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index was trading 0.09% higher, the broader S&P 500 was down 0.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was 0.01% ahead. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading 22 points, or 0.29% higher, at 7572 points at 0700 AEDT on Thursday.

The context: All three major US stock indexes oscillated between modest gains and losses amid light trading. There was very little market-moving news to nudge sentiment in either direction as the S&P 500 kept hovering just below a record high. Last week’s cooler-than-expected US price index data has firmed bets that the Fed will issue its first rate cut as soon as March, which is supporting interest rate sensitive shares and indexes an upward bias.