Australian shares to open higher as oil slide lifts travel stocks
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open higher after Wall Street closed mixed overnight, as technology stocks weighed on sentiment amid ongoing valuation concerns, while lower oil prices lifted airlines and travel stocks, helping the Dow Jones finish higher.
The numbers: Updated at 7:48am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 16 points to 8,810 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.35%, S&P 500 down 0.10%, Nasdaq down 0.43%
- Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.31%, CAC 40 up 0.54%, DAX down 0.62%
- Spot gold: down 2.77% to USD3,999 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 5.06% to USD73.18/barrel, US WTI down 4.56% to USD69.87/bbl
- AUD: down 0.25% at 68.89 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 2.73% to USD60,949
The context: The Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed lower on Wednesday, while the Dow Jones edged 0.4% higher.
Artificial Intelligence remained the market’s key focus. Shares in Cerebras Systems fell 20% after the company warned it expects to remain operating at a loss, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index pared losses to finish 0.2% lower following Tuesday’s near 8% decline.
However, sentiment improved after the close, with Micron rising 13% in after-hours trading after forecasting fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of about USD50 billion ($71 billion), well ahead of analysts’ average estimate of USD43.2 billion according to Bloomberg.
Elsewhere Brent crude fell more than USD3 a barrel on Wednesday to its lowest settlement since before the Iran war began, according to Reuters, as supply concerns eased with more stranded oil tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz.
Lower oil prices boosted travel-related stocks. The S&P 500 Passenger Airlines Index rose 5.2%, while Expedia Group and Booking Holdings gained 17% and 12.3% respectively.
Locally, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to release labour force, job vacancies, monthly spending indicator and national accounts for finance and wealth figures at 11:30am AEST.
