Australian shares to open lower after choppy Wall Street session

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to start slightly lower, tracking losses on Wall Street where investors remained wary of geopolitical and trade uncertainties.

The numbers: Updated at 7.25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: down 8 points or 0.09% at 8,434 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.29%, S&P 500 down 0.01%, Nasdaq up 0.24%
• Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.01%, CAC 40 up 0.21%, DAX up 0.20%
• Spot gold: up 1.31% to USD2,934.37 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 0.74% to USD75.78/ barrel, US WTI up 1.50% to USD71.80/bbl
• AUD: down 0.1% at 63.51 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 1.71% to USD94,178.64.

The context: The three main US stock indices see-sawed in a choppy session before slipping into negative territory, weighed down by declines in Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Alphabet. It comes ahead of the release of the minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting, at which the voting members elected to keep interest rates steady amid signs of an inflation rebound and the unknown extent and effects of President Trump's threatened tariffs.

What to watch: December quarter wage price index at 11.30am, quarterly trading update from National Australia Bank, and Santos, Goodman Group, Cleanaway, James Hardie, Iluka and Stockland, among others.