Australian shares to open higher as Trump calls off Iran strikes, SpaceX debut nears
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open higher after Wall Street surged overnight, as investors welcomed Trump’s decision to cancel planned strikes against Iran and turned their attention to the market debut of SpaceX.
The numbers: Updated at 7:45am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 146 points to 8,749 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.86%, S&P 500 up 1.75%, Nasdaq up 2.54%
- Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.48%, CAC 40 up 0.48%, DAX up 0.06%
- Spot gold: up 2.41% to USD4,169.90 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 4.39% to USD89.00/barrel, US WTI down 4.44% to USD86.03/bbl
- AUD: up 0.71% at 70.49 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 3.30% to USD63,481
The context: All three major US indices recorded their largest daily percentage gain since 8 April, according to Reuters, as a rally in chipmakers helped drive the market higher. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 7.9%, its biggest one-day gain since April 2025.
Oil prices fell, with Brent crude declining 4.3% to around USD89 ($126) a barrel after Trump withdrew threats of military actions against Iran, citing discussions had reached “highest level of Iranian leadership” aimed at negotiating an end to the conflict. Trump said an agreement could be signed as early as this weekend in Europe with Vice President JD Vance expected to attend, Bloomberg reported. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported Tehran was likely to approve the deal, although no formal response has been issued.
Elsewhere, investors are focused on the Nasdaq debut of SpaceX on Friday (ET). The company priced its initial public offering at USD135 per share, valuing it at USD1.77 trillion and making it one of the most valuable companies to publicly list. The IPO raised a record USD75 billion through the sale of 555.56 million shares.
Globally, the European Central Bank raised its deposit rate to 2.25% for the first time in almost three years, marking the first major central bank response to the inflationary impact of higher energy prices stemming from the Iran conflict.
