Australian shares to open higher as Wall Street surged on renewed AI optimism
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The news: Australian shares are set to open higher after a surge on Wall Street overnight, driven by renewed optimism around artificial intelligence and expectations of easing monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 hovered near a record high, while the Nasdaq 100 also advanced.
Investors focus has shifted back to the AI theme after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said AI-related storage could become the largest storage market in the world.
The numbers: Updated at 7:38am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 27 points, or 0.31% to 8,716.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.06%, S&P 500 up 0.64% and Nasdaq up 0.66%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.32%, DAX up 0.09% and FTSE 100 up 1.18%.
- Spot gold: up 0.94% to USD4,487 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent down 1.88% to USD60.61/bbl and US WTI down 2.26% to USD57.00/bbl.
- AUD: up 0.39% at 67.39 US cents.
- Bitcoin: down 1.36% to USD92,633.
The context: Wall Street indices surged overnight towards new records, buoyed by continued optimism around artificial intelligence. The biggest gains were seen in the technology sector including Amazon, Micron Technology and Broadcom, after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s remarks at CES on surging demand for AI-related storage sent US memory and storage stocks sharply higher in afternoon trading.
Elsewhere, commodities investors were largely unfazed by tensions in Venezuela, with Brent crude erasing earlier gains to trade down around 1%. Precious metals extended their rally, with gold rising 1% and silver climbing nearly 6%.
The focus will now be on the upcoming Australian consumer price index data due to be released at 11:30am AEDT today.
