Australian shares to slip after mixed Wall Street session
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower as sentiment remains cautious after a mixed session on Wall Street amid ongoing testimony by US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.13% lower, while the broader S&P 500 edged 0.07% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.14%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were down 41 points or 0.5% at 7,771 points at 7:00am AEST on Wednesday.
The context: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose modestly to fresh record-high closes on the back of gains in Nvidia as optimism about the growth of AI across the US corporate landscape offset uncertainty around the Fed's rate-cut path.
Earlier, Powell told Congress that while US inflation "remains above" the 2% soft-landing target, it has been improving in recent months and "more good data would strengthen" the case for interest-rate cuts. However, the central bank chief insisted he was not "sending any signals about the timing of any future actions."
Markets have stuck to pricing in 50 basis points (bps) of easing for this year, seeing a nearly 72% chance for the first 25 bps cut by the Fed's September meeting, according to CME's FedWatch. Inflation data is also due this week, including Thursday's consumer price index and the producer price index reading on Friday.
In the local market, traders will be watching overseas events including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s policy decision, as well as Chinese inflation data.
The source: Reuters
