ASX opens marginally higher as Droneshield rallies
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More news: The Australian share market edged higher in early trade buoyed by the banks. The benchmark ASX rose 0.07% or 5.6 points to 8,640 at 10:38am AEDT with eight sectors opening in negative territory.
Droneshield (+17.83%) led the biggest rally on the back of inking a $50 million contract with a military customer in Europe.
Financials (+0.51%) was the best performing sector across the ASX 200, led by banking giants Commonwealth Bank (+1.11%), Westpac (+1.18%), NAB (+1.61%), ANZ (+1.82%) and Macquarie Group (+0.48%), which all dragged the indices higher.
However, Technology (-1.85%) led the early trade biggest loss after Life360 (-6.61%) and IperionX (-5.82%) plunged despite securing a new titanium project for the US navy on Monday.
Australian shares to open flat as Wall St awaits key data
The news: Australian shares are set to start marginally lower as Wall Street indices edged lower overnight, with investors braced for key economic data later in the week.
The numbers: Updated at 7:23am AEDT:
- ASX futures: down 7 points to 8,631.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.08%, S&P 500 down 0.03% and Nasdaq down 0.52%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.70%, DAX up 0.18% and FTSE 100 up 1.06%.
- Spot gold: down 0.19% to USD4,306per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent down 1.17% to USD60.36/bbl and US WTI down 1.38% to USD56.65/bbl.
- AUD: down 0.21% at 66.38 US cents.
- Bitcoin: down 2.69% to USD85,821.
The context: Wall Street's main indices fell on Monday as investors await key economic data later this week while assessing clues by Federal Reserve policymakers on the interest rate outlook.
The October and November nonfarm payrolls, along with retail sales, business activity and inflation data are set to be released this week.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell to a three-week low amid ongoing concerns about inflation and debt-fuelled AI investments.
Wall Street investors are also assessing the next Fed candidacy with White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett receiving some pushback from the Trump administration.
The source: Reuters
