Australian shares to open flat despite gains on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open barely changed as investors weigh the impact of Tuesday’s RBA rate hike, despite major indices on Wall Street closing higher.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.18% higher, while the broader S&P 500 gained 0.29%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.91%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading just 1 point or 0.01% lower at 6989 points at 8:00am AEDT on Wednesday.

The context: The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recorded their seventh and eighth straight day of gains respectively, the longest such streak for each index in two years. The gains came amid a retreat in US Treasury yields, which buoyed megacap growth stocks like Microsoft and Apple. Expectations that the Fed's rate hike cycle is at an end have increased in recent days, but the market remains sensitive to the possibility of more hikes. In the local market though, investors are treading cautiously after the Reserve Bank lifted its cash rate by the expected quarter point to 4.35%.