Australian shares to open higher tracking Wall Street lead

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open higher, tracking a positive lead from Wall Street on Friday, where tech stocks climbed despite a volatile trading session.

The numbers: Updated at 7.25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: up 48 points or 0.59% at 8,180 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.39%, S&P 500 up 1.59%, Nasdaq up 1.63%
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.61%, CAC 40 up 0.11%, DAX up 0.01%
• Spot gold: down 0.68% to USD2,857.83 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent down 1.03% to USD72.81/bbl, US WTI down 0.84% to USD69.76/bbl
• AUD: up 0.07% at 62.13 US cents
• Bitcoin: up 9.22% to USD94,091.49.

The context: All three major US stock indices ended higher, despite uncertainty over Ukraine's war with Russia following a disastrous meeting between the US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. Investors were also focused on data that showed US inflation rose in January in line with expectations, but consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, dropped 0.2%. Traders still see the Fed lowering interest rates twice by December.

What to watch: Business Indicators data for the December quarter at 11.30am, CoreLogic House Prices data for February.