The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat at the open after a rebound in major US technology stocks helped lift the S&P 500, despite declines for Apple and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
ASX futures indicated a fall of 28 points, or 0.3 per cent. The index rose 0.3 per cent in the previous session after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates to an 18-year high.
The Australian dollar was trading at 69.74 US cents.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was up 0.5 per cent in early afternoon trading, although more shares in the index were falling than rising. The Dow was down 247 points, or 0.5 per cent, while the technology-focused Nasdaq composite gained 1 per cent.
Investors have remained cautious around technology and artificial-intelligence stocks after a surge in prices prompted concerns that valuations had risen too far. Several major AI-linked companies recovered, helping to support the broader market.
Nvidia gained 3.2 per cent, while Broadcom rose 3.2 per cent. Advanced Micro Devices added 5.5 per cent and Micron Technology climbed 2.6 per cent.
Apple moved in the opposite direction, falling 2 per cent despite reporting quarterly profit and revenue ahead of analysts’ expectations. The company said rising memory-chip costs, driven by demand from AI data centres, were expected to reduce the profit it makes from each dollar of revenue in the final three months of the year.
Palantir Technologies also declined, falling 2.1 per cent even after beating profit forecasts. Revenue from its US commercial customers rose 148 per cent from a year earlier, overtaking income from the US government for the first time.
Stocks in several companies that reported stronger-than-expected summer profits advanced. Celanese rose 4.7 per cent, DuPont gained 8.8 per cent and life sciences company Revvity jumped 11.7 per cent after exceeding analysts’ expectations.
Markets were also weighing political uncertainty surrounding the US midterm elections. However, the S&P 500 has recorded a positive return in the six months after every midterm election since 1970, according to Brock Weimer, an analyst at Edward Jones.
US Treasury yields rose after a report showed employers had advertised more job vacancies at the end of September than economists had anticipated. The yield on the 10-year Treasury increased to 4.96 per cent from 4.91 per cent.
Oil prices remained volatile, with Brent crude last down 1.4 per cent at 103.27 US dollars a barrel after moving above 107 dollars overnight and briefly falling below 101 dollars amid uncertainty over the war with Iran.
European markets were lower and Asian trading was mixed. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.6 per cent after losses for technology groups Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
