Australian shares to open higher after Wall Street gains

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to open higher after Wall Street’s main indices hit their highest level in more than a month as investors assessed Donald Trump's first actions as US President.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 25 points or 0.30% at 8,404 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.08%, S&P 500 up 0.78%, Nasdaq up 0.63%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.33%, CAC 40 up 0.48%, DAX up 0.25%
• Spot gold: up 1.20% to USD2,740.65 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent down 0.80% to USD79.51/barrel, US WTI down 2.56% to USD75.89/bbl
• AUD: down 0.14% at 62.66 US cents
• Bitcoin: up 4.64% to USD106,770.70

The context: Trump did not outline any concrete plans on the universal tariffs and additional surcharges on close trade partners that he had previously promised, prompting brokerage Goldman Sachs to lower its forecast for the chances of a universal tariff this year to 25% from 40% seen in December.

Utilities stocks were the biggest gainers on the S&P, followed by industrials, while tech sector gains were capped by a decline in heavyweight Apple.