Australian futures reverse losses to edge up; Nasdaq paces Wall Street lower; bitcoin tumbles; results pending from Origin, Resmed.
Australian share futures were higher, reversing earlier losses as buyers rushed forward in New York. The S&P 500 was 0.6 per cent lower at 1.45pm, cutting more than in half earlier losses.
Oil surged through $US70 a barrel, gold swung wildly, and bitcoin plunged below $US84,000. Volatility was higher.
Shares in Microsoft plunged near 12 per cent, knocking the NYSE Fang + Index consisting of the largest US tech stocks down 2 per cent. Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives said investors wanted to see “less cap-ex spending and faster cloud/AI monetisation and coming out of the gates it’s the opposite”.
“We have said this is a multi-year journey and Redmond needs to focus on its data centre build out with more customers heading down the AI path. It’s a balancing act with 2026 the inflection year for AI and Microsoft.”
Ives said he continues to rate Microsoft as outperform, though he cut his target price to $US575 from $US625.
Apple is set to report after the closing bell, at 8am AEDT as well as ResMed, Western Digital and SanDisk. ExxonMobil and Chevron are to report before Wall Street’s opening bell on Friday.
Market highlights
ASX 200 futures are pointing up 20 points or 0.2% to 8909.
All US prices near 1.45pm New York time.
- AUD -0.1% to US70.34¢
- Bitcoin -6.7% to $US83,410
- On Wall St: Dow -0.2% S&P -0.6% Nasdaq -1.3%
- VIX +1.76 to 18.11
- Gold -1.1% to $US5360.17 an ounce
- Brent oil +3.1% to $US70.49 a barrel
- Iron ore +1.5% to $US104.60 a tonne
- 10-year yield: US 4.23% Australia 4.83%
Today’s agenda
Among quarterly updates on Friday’s calendar are: Origin Energy, ResMed, Atlas Arteria Group and Champion Iron.
There are no major data releases scheduled for Australia and New Zealand. Overseas, Japan is set to release Tokyo CPI and industrial production. In Europe, fourth-quarter GDP is awaited from France, Germany and the Eurozone. Early Saturday AEDT, the US will release December PPI.
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