The Australian sharemarket is expected to open broadly flat on Friday, with futures at 6am AEST pointing to a modest 3-point, or 0.03%, rise for the S&P/ASX 200.
The Australian dollar was steady at US69.38 cents, unchanged from the same time a day earlier, as investors weighed renewed Middle East tensions against a rebound in global technology stocks.
Local market falls for fourth straight session
The ASX extended its losing streak to a fourth session on Thursday, as another day of strikes between the US and Iran dented hopes of a lasting peace deal and raised fresh concerns about inflation.
The S&P/ASX 200 fell 22.6 points, or 0.26%, to 8,762.5, while the broader All Ordinaries lost 18 points, or 0.2%, to 8,961.3.
Losses were pared late in the session as heavyweight financial stocks recovered from an early sell-off. The sector had been down as much as 1.3% before narrowing its decline to less than 0.2% by the close.
Materials weighed on the benchmark, led by Rio Tinto, which dropped 3.3% to $158.52 after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) cut its price target to $149 on concerns about the aluminium market.
Gold miners were also weaker despite the precious metal firming to US$4,104 an ounce during the session. Northern Star was the best performer among the larger ASX-listed gold names, slipping 0.9% after appointing former Perseus Mining boss Jeff Quartermaine as an independent non-executive director.
Among company movers, FDC Consolidated Holdings surged more than 12% to $3.37 on its ASX debut after listing at $3 per share in a $400 million initial public offering, the largest on the local market so far in 2026.
Fletcher Building climbed more than 7.5% after lifting its 2026 full-year earnings guidance by more than 6% to between $400 million and $403 million.
Telstra recovered 1.2% to $4.98 after falling almost 3% in the previous session following Wednesday’s major outage.
Wall Street higher as chip stocks rally
US markets gained on Thursday as strength in semiconductor stocks outweighed concerns that renewed US-Iran hostilities could prolong conflict in the Middle East and add to inflationary pressure.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, the S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Nasdaq advanced 1.3%.
Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished higher, led by information technology, which rose 1.7%, and consumer discretionary, which gained 1.5%.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 3.1%, helped by Micron Technology, which rose 4.5% after outlining plans to invest more than US$250 billion in the US through 2035 to support demand for memory chips linked to artificial intelligence.
Applied Materials gained 3%, Sandisk surged 7.6% and Meta Platforms climbed 4.7% following a Reuters report that the company plans to begin manufacturing AI chips in September.
IBM fell 2.2%, while Microsoft edged 0.2% higher after Bloomberg reported Starbucks had tapped AI to reduce its reliance on both companies. PepsiCo dropped 3% despite beating second-quarter revenue expectations.
Europe rebounds on technology strength
European sharemarkets rose for the first time this week, as technology gains helped offset lingering concerns over the Middle East conflict.
The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index ended 0.8% higher, while the UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2%.
Chip stocks led the advance, with Siltronic up 13.4%, Soitec gaining 5.9% and ASML rising 4.8%.
Sentiment was supported by reports that China may allow domestic AI firms limited access to Nvidia’s H200 chips, potentially lifting demand expectations for AI infrastructure.
Healthcare was the weakest sector, falling 1%, led by AstraZeneca, which dropped 6.2% after its nerve disease drug Wainua failed to meet the main goal of reducing cardiovascular deaths and recurring heart problems in a late-stage trial.
Currencies edge higher against US dollar
Major currencies gained ground against the US dollar.
- The euro rose 0.1% to US$1.1428.
- The Japanese yen advanced 0.1% to JPY162.34.
- The Australian dollar gained 0.2% to US69.39 cents.
Commodities mixed as oil slips and metals rise
Oil prices fell as investors weighed the risk of slowing demand from inflation and weaker economic growth against supply concerns linked to the conflict between the US and Iran.
Brent crude futures settled 2.2% lower at US$76.30 a barrel.
Base metals moved higher as traders looked past the latest tit-for-tat strikes and reacted to a softer US dollar.
- Copper futures climbed 2.7%, while aluminium futures gained 1.6%.
- Gold futures rose as bargain hunting emerged after prices touched a one-week low, settling 1.4% higher at US$4,140 an ounce.
- Iron ore futures were little changed, easing 0.3% to US$98.57 a tonne.
Looking ahead
In the US, Delta Air Lines is scheduled to report second-quarter results today.
Next week, the US earnings season gathers pace, with JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America due to report on Tuesday.