Australian shares to open higher as geopolitical tensions ease ahead of US tech earnings
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open higher after Wall Street steadied to end a volatile week, with easing oil prices on signs of de-escalation in the US-Iran conflict offsetting a sell-off in semiconductor stocks fuelled by concerns about heavy artificial intelligence spending ahead of this week’s megacap earnings reports.
The numbers: Updated at 8:00am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 48 points to 8,766 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.46% on Friday, S&P 500 up 0.05%, Nasdaq down 0.64%
- Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.91% on Friday, CAC 40 up 0.88, DAX up 1.39%
- Spot gold: up 0.94% to USD4,090 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 9.22% to USD91.43 barrel, US WTI down 8.30% to USD84.68/bbl
- AUD: up 0.44% at 70.00 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 1.24% to USD65,086.
The context: The three major US indices closed mixed on Friday, with the Nasdaq falling sharply and recording its first back-to-back weekly decline since late March. The index was dragged lower by the oil price spike and a sell-off in tech stocks that had previously rallied on the AI investment boom.
The S&P 500 edged higher despite weakness in its technology sector. The S&P 500 technology index fell 0.88%, as semiconductor stocks declined.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 4.2% on Friday, taking its July loss to nearly 17% and putting it on track for its worst month since June 2022, according to Bloomberg. Investors are now turning their attention to earnings from Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Apple this week.
Elsewhere, oil prices retreated from the previous session’s USD100 ($142) a barrel peak after a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday that Tehran would halt its attacks if the US did the same.
The development came after the US paused its bombing campaign after advisers told President Donald Trump that available targets were diminishing and raised concerns about depleting US weapons stockpiles. No US attacks were reported on Saturday or Sunday (ET).
Locally, Australians are scheduled to receive a test alert at 2pm AEST as the federal government runs the first national trial of AusAlert.
