Australia shares open higher as tech sector rallies, WiseTech completes Richard White review
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More news: Australian shares were higher in morning trade as the tech sector mirrored a rally in US tech stocks overnight after lower-than-expected inflation data spurred rate cut bets.
The benchmark ASX fell 0.56% or 47.8 points to 8,634 at 10:50am AEDT with nine sectors in the green.
The tech sector (+1.8%) was the best performer. WiseTech Global (+3.3%) announced overnight that a board review into co-founder and executive chair Richard White had been completed. It found no evidence that White inappropriately used company funds.
Austal (+1.9%) shares were also higher after landing a $135 million contract extension for the construction of two evolved cap-class patrol boats for the Australian Border Force.
Temple & Webster (+6.6%) and DroneShield (+6.4%) were the best performing stocks on the ASX 200 despite there being no company specific news.
Boss Energy (-2.3%) continued to take losses after announcing on Thursday that it is re-evaluating the feasibility of its Honeymoon uranium project.
Australian shares to rise after US inflation data fuels Wall St rally
The news: Australian shares are set to open marginally higher after Wall Street’s main indices rallied overnight, led by the tech sector, while softer-than-expected inflation data fuelled expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts.
The numbers: Updated at 7:21am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 43 points, or 0.50%, to 8,653.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.25%, S&P 500 up 0.64% and Nasdaq up 1.49%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.80%, DAX up 1% and FTSE 100 up 0.65%.
- Spot gold: down 0.16% to USD4,332 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent up 0.10% to USD59.74/bbl and US WTI up 0.19% to USD56.04/bbl.
- AUD: down 0.13% at 66.13US cents.
- Bitcoin: down 1.28% to USD85,065.
The context: The Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 all traded higher in overnight trade and were on track to snap a four session decline streak.
Micron Technology (+16%) surged on Thursday New York time after the company delivered an outsized profit forecast, citing a global supply crunch in memory chips driven by strong demand from AI data centres.
On the economical front, the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.7% year-on-year in November, below forecasts, fuelling rate cut bets.
Meanwhile, US jobless claims showed new applications fell last week, reversing the prior week’s surge and suggesting labour market conditions remained stable in December.
Traders now see a 58% chance of a dovish policy move in March, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
In the local market, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release overseas migration data for 2024-25 and the Reserve Bank of Australia will publish private sector credit growth data for November at 11:30am AEDT.
