Australian shares to start higher after gains on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket is poised to edge higher in early trading, tracking gains for major US indices that rose on the back of strength in mega cap tech stocks.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index is trading 0.41% higher, while the broader S&P 500 is up 0.54% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.75%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading 11 points or 0.15% higher at 7456 points at 7:00am AEDT on Thursday.

The context: Shares in Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Nvidia provided the biggest boosts to the US stock indices, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield held near 4% and Nvidia hit a record high after fellow chipmaker TSMC beat fourth-quarter revenue expectations. Investor focus will turn to the December consumer and producer inflation reports, due on Thursday and Friday respectively, which could help determine the monetary policy path for the central bank, as well as fourth quarter earnings from banking giants JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, due on Friday.