Australian shares to start lower tracking losses on Wall Street

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start lower, in line with a decline on Wall Street where jittery investors await heavyweight Nvidia’s results.

The numbers: The Dow Jones index is trading 0.26% lower, while the broader S&P 500 is down 0.34% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.83%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were trading 32 points or 0.42% lower at 7529 points at 7:00 AEDT on Thursday.

The context: Each of the three major US indexes is on track for a third straight decline as investors looked toward the release of Nvidia's earnings that could determine the near-term momentum for the equity market. Analysts have cautioned that the chipmaker's lofty valuation could be vulnerable to a sharp pullback if the company delivers anything short of a blowout report, which in turn could dampen enthusiasm over other AI-related stocks that have helped power the current market rally.

Meanwhile, minutes from the Federal Reserve's January meeting showed the majority of policymakers were concerned about the risks of cutting interest rates too soon, with broad uncertainty about how long borrowing costs should remain at their current level.