ASX 200 futures rose 10 points (+0.11%) at 8:30 am AEST, pointing to a day of gains ahead.
Yesterday, the S&P/ASX 200 eased 6 points (-0.07%) in quiet trade as New South Wales celebrated its post-NRL grand final holiday. Decliners outpaced advancers, but notably, small-cap miners surged; European Lithium jumped 127%, underscoring recent outsized moves at the smaller end of the market.
Read more: European Lithium launches share buyback, citing asset value disconnect
Looking ahead, Australia releases consumer confidence and job ads; Reece trades ex-dividend.
Chipmakers lead US gains
US equities were mixed.
Chipmakers led gains after Advanced Micro Devices soared 23.7% on a supply deal with OpenAI. Super Micro Computer (+5.1%), Palantir (+3.7%) and Oracle (+1.9%) advanced. Tesla added 5.5% ahead of an October 7 event. Comerica climbed 13.7% after Fifth Third Bancorp’s US$10.9 billion all-stock bid; Fifth Third fell 1.4%. Crypto-exposed names rose as Bitcoin neared record highs. Verizon slipped 5.1% after naming Dan Schulman chief executive officer.
The Dow Jones dipped 0.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4% (seventh straight gain) and the Nasdaq added 0.7%, both at record closes.
International trade, consumer credit and New York Fed inflation expectations are due.
Europe lower
European markets edged lower on French fiscal concerns.
France fell 1.4%, the sharpest drop since August, following Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s resignation.
Semiconductor stocks bucked the trend: BESI gained 12.4% and ASML rose 2%.
The FTSEurofirst 300 eased marginally; the FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%.
Currencies
- The euro fell from US$1.1724 to US$1.1651, ending near US$1.1710.
- The Australian dollar firmed to about US66.15 cents.
- The Japanese yen strengthened to around ¥150.30 per US dollar.
Commodities
- Oil rose about 1.5% after OPEC+ flagged a modest 137,000 barrels per day November increase: Brent US$65.47 a barrel; WTI US$61.69. Base metals were mixed (copper -1.4%, aluminium +0.9%).
- Gold futures hit a record US$3,976.30 an ounce; spot traded near US$3,959.
- Iron ore edged up 0.1% to US$104.48 per tonne.