Australian shares to open lower after choppy Wall St session

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower with US stocks trading in a narrow range ahead of a slew of economic data this week.

The numbers: Updated at 7:25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: down 24 points or 0.28% at 8,498 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.08%, S&P 500 up 0.04%, Nasdaq up 0.23%.
• Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.56%, CAC 40 up 0.26%, DAX up 0.42%
• Spot gold: up 0.12% to USD2,642.27 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 2.56% to USD73.67/barrel, US WTI up 2.8% to USD70.01/bbl
• AUD: up 0.1% at 64.82 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 0.28% to USD95,673.61

The context: US tech-related shares extended recent gains as investors digested reassuring comments from two Federal Reserve policymakers that they see inflation heading down to the US central bank's 2% target amid a solid job market. Markets are awaiting a November reading of private payrolls later on Wednesday and the US monthly employment report on Friday. Meanwhile, Tesla shares tumbled 2.2% after the automaker's sales of China-made electric vehicles fell 4.3% year-on-year in November.

What to Watch: Australian GDP data for the September quarter at 11:30am AEDT; and New Zealand dairy producer Synlait’s annual shareholders meeting.