ASX to rise, Nasdaq rallies towards record high

AU Financial Review

6 hours ago

Australian shares are set to open modestly higher, as futures trailed a broad rally in New York. Information technology and financials paced nine of the 11 S&P 500 industry sectors higher.
A key driver for Wall Street was another major step down in the price of oil. Both Brent Crude and US oil were more than 5 per cent lower in late US trading as a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran mostly held.
The advance was checked in part by comments by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell to Congress and data showing that US consumer confidence continues to falter.
Powell told a Congressional hearing that the Fed 'has to be forward looking' and the Fed and outside forecasters continue to expect that tariffs will push inflation higher in the months ahead. He reiterated that there was no rush to cut rates.
While futures markets point towards a rate cut in September, Morgan Stanley said it still thinks the Fed will be on hold through the end of 2025. 'We think cuts will start in March-26 - we forecast seven cuts next year to 2.5 per cent-2.75 per cent.'
Market highlights
ASX futures are pointing up 5 points or 0.1 per cent to 8540.
All US prices are as of 4pm New York time.
Today's agenda
The Monthly CPI Indicator released on Wednesday is for May and being the mid-month of the quarter has a better coverage of the services side of the CPI basket.
NAB said it expects the May CPI indicator to fall to 2.2% y/y from 2.4% (consensus 2.4%). 'Travel prices fall seasonally in May, but we expect a larger fall than a year ago due to base effects around the shifting timing of Easter (-6% m/m), and this is also expected to drive a sharp drop in the annual trimmed mean measure (2.4% y/y from 2.8%).'
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