Australian shares to open lower after Wall Street decline

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to fall in early trading after Wall Street declined ahead of a much-anticipated quarterly report from chipmaker Nvidia.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.39% lower, while the broader S&P 500 lost 0.60% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.12%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were down 22 points or 0.27% to 8,004 points at 7am AEST on Thursday.

The context: US stocks fell ahead of Nvidia’s result, Wall Street's centrepiece event of the week. Shares of the dominant seller of AI processors, fell nearly 6% in after hours trade despite the company meeting analysts' high expectations and announcing a USD50 billion share buyback. Nvidia is is viewed as the biggest winner so far from AI technology and its outlook could shatter or add fresh fuel to a rally driven by optimism around artificial intelligence.

Investors are now awaiting the US personal consumption expenditure report for July, due on Friday, that could provide further insight into the central bank's likely rate-cut trajectory. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell last week confirmed the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at its September meeting. The CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently sees a 64% chance of a 25-basis point reduction and a 37% chance of a 50-bps cut.