ASX 200 Futures are indicating a flat open to the market is on the cards today, with a small 0.02% dip in trading likely to open the day on a slightly down note.
The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold overnight, pointing to a strong labour market and elevated inflation and driving US markets down overall.
US and European markets
US indices were down across the board overnight in the US as the markets absorbed the Fed’s rate decision and the dust settled around the DeepSeek AI controversy.
The Tech sector fell for a second day of trading, losing 1.09%. Nvidia had another day in the red despite recovering some of its share price in after hours trading, slipping 4.03% before again making an after-market recovery of 1.62%.
Microsoft also fell 1.09% and Tesla 2.26%, with the rest of the Magnificent Seven posting marginal gains or losses.
Bloomberg reports that Goldman Sachs strategists are unphased by the tech sector sell-off, with little sign a bear market is forming.
The Real Estate sector also suffered from the Fed’s decision, slipping 1.19%.
The single largest stock loss on the S&P500 yesterday was a 9.8% plunge by PKG, which revealed lower-than-expected adjusted earnings per share and issued profit guidance short of consensus estimates.
Diagnostic specialist company Danaher also slipped 9.7% after missing bottom-line targets as well as forecasting a slip in sales in the current quarter.
Moderna similarly lost 9.4% after being downgraded from “buy” to “neutral” by Goldman Sachs.
On the other hand, cloud computing company F5 reached a new record high with an 11.4% jump on beating quarterly forecasts and Starbucks surged 8.1% with higher-than-expected quarterly numbers despite a year-on-year slump.
The S&P500 fell 0.47%, the Nasdaq 0.51% or 101 points and the Dow 0.31% or 136 points.
European markets hit record highs overnight, as – similar to Australia – tech stocks there resisted the DeepSeek bears, climbing 2.4% as chip equipment manufacturer ASML shares lifted by 5.6% on strong fourth quarter bookings.
The national Riksbank of Sweden cut rates by 25 basis points to 2.25%, while the Bank of Canada followed suit with a cut of the same size.
The European Central Bank is also expected to cut rates as Europe awaits Trump’s tariffs, with traders betting more cuts will be needed to balance out rising costs.
The FTSE300 lifted by 0.5% to record highs, while the UK FTSE100 added 0.3%.
Currencies and commodities
Currencies were mixed overnight.
The Euro slipped from US$1.0442 to near US$1.0415, the Aussie from US62.47 cents to near US62.30 cents, while the Yen gained, lifting from JPY155.51 per US dollar to near JPY155.20.
Global oil prices declined following a rise in US crude stockpiles by 3.46 million barrels last week, exceeding analysts' expectations of a 3.19-million-barrel increase.
Brent crude fell by US91 cents (1.2%) to US$76.58 per barrel, while US Nymex crude dropped US$1.15 (1.6%) to US$72.62 per barrel.
Base metal prices increased, with copper futures up 0.9% and aluminium futures rising 1.9%.
Iron ore futures increased by US3 cents (less than 0.1%) to US$101.33 per tonne in thin Asian trading after Brazilian producer Vale reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter output.
Gold futures edged up by US$2.30 (0.1%) to US$2,769.80 per ounce as investors reacted to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and US trade policy developments. Spot gold was near US$2,755 at the US close.
On the small cap front
The ASX Small Ordinaries gained 1.37% or 43.5 points yesterday, outperforming the ASX’s 0.67% lift.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day.
- archTIS Ltd has inked a binding term sheet to acquire Direktiv's technology’s assets and customers.
- Titan Minerals Ltd has hit 15.5 metres at 3 g/t gold and 22.8 g/t silver from 89 metres at the Iguana prospect of the Dynasty Project.
- Olympio Metals Ltd has confirmed the presence of multiple electromagnetic anomalies at the Dasserat porphyry gold-copper drill target, coincident with a 1,200-metre-long induced polarisation target.
- Aurum Resources Ltd has hit 150 g/t gold at the Boundiali Gold Project in Côte d'Ivoire, among several other bonanza-grade intersections.
- GTI Energy Ltd has completed two of three groundwater monitoring wells at the Lo Herma ISR Uranium Project, having also finalised the staking of the final permit claims.