Australian shares to open lower after Wall Street slides on tech selloff
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower after US stock indices fell more than 1% overnight, as ongoing weakness in chipmaker shares and escalating tensions between the US and Iran weighed on investor sentiment.
The numbers: Updated at 7:50am AEST:
- ASX futures: down 65 points to 8,601 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 1.87%, S&P 500 down 1.62%, Nasdaq down 1.98%
- Europe: FTSE 100 up 0.27%, CAC 40 down 0.51%, DAX down 0.97%
- Spot gold: down 4.44% to USD4,071.92 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 3.56% to USD94.71/barrel, US WTI down 4.14% to USD91.85/bbl
- AUD: down 0.47% at 69.99 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 0.73% to USD61,156.
The context: All three major US indices closed more than 1% lower on Wednesday as a renewed selloff in large cap tech stocks and escalating geopolitical tension weighed on sentiment. The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, leaving the benchmark at a five-week low, according to Bloomberg.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined 3.6%, with Nvidia and Broadcom falling 3.7% and 5.1% respectively. The S&P 500 technology sector has now fallen 11% from its 2 June record close, confirming a correction.
US crude settled around USD90 ($128) a barrel after Trump vowed further action against Iran and criticised the country for delaying talks on an interim peace deal following overnight attacks that strained a fragile ceasefire. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US would target key Iranian facilities on Wednesday (ET).
The comments followed US strikes on around 20 Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, according to a US official, after Trump blamed Tehran for the downing of a US Apache helicopter.
Elsewhere, US consumer inflation accelerated to 4.2% in May, the fastest annual pace in three years, driven by rising energy prices stemming from the Middle East conflict, reinforcing expectations the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged into 2027.
Globally, the European Central Bank is scheduled to release its monetary policy statement and interest rate decision for June at 10:15pm AEST.
