Source : THE AGE NEWS
By Rita Nazareth
The Australian sharemarket is tipped to open weaker despite a rally from some of the world’s largest technology companies that spurred a rebound on Wall Street.
ASX 200 futures were down 15 points or 0.2 per cent at 8.183 at 7.15 AEDT, after the S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 1.7 per cent on Monday to post its best session in six months.
Overnight, US stocks recovered from a wobble that was fuelled by weaker-than-expected data on US consumer confidence. While most companies in the S&P 500 retreated, Tesla and Nvidia drove a gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps up over 1 per cent.
However, it was a thin trading session at the start of a holiday-shortened week, with volume roughly 20 per cent below the average of the past month.
Wall Street recovered from an early wobble as the heavyweight technology stocks spurred a rebound.Credit: Bloomberg
“Primary uptrends remain intact for equities despite the recent profit-taking,” Craig Johnson at Piper Sandler said.
“Given the short-term oversold conditions, we expect a ‘Santa Claus Rally’ to be a strong possibility this year.”
To Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, negative breadth — when falling shares outnumber those that are rising — may not matter as much for high-quality stock indexes with robust price momentum.
Earlier, stocks lost steam momentarily after data showed consumer confidence unexpectedly sank for the first time in three months on concerns about the outlook for the US economy.
“The economic outlook is deteriorating,” said Neil Dutta at Renaissance Macro Research. “This was true before the Fed’s December confab and remains true. The risk of the Fed flip-flopping is quite high.”
The S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.7 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average wavered.
Qualcomm climbed after prevailing at trial against Arm Holdings’ claim that it breached a license for chip technology. Rumble soared on news that crypto stablecoin firm Tether will buy a stake in the video-sharing platform.
Meanwhile, US retail giant Nordstrom is going private after the founding Nordstrom family, which owns a 33 per cent stake in the company, teamed up with Mexican retail investor El Puerto de Liverpool on the deal.
Treasury 10-year yields advanced seven basis points to 4.59 per cent. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.3 per cent.
The S&P 500 is on its way to record a stellar annual return and back-to-back years of more than 20 per cent gains. The index has risen about 25 per cent since the end of 2023, with the top seven biggest technology stocks accounting for more than half of the advance.
“Last week’s action should mark the end of the recent pullback and allow a ‘Santa Claus Rally’,” said Jonathan Krinsky at BTIG. “We do think a deeper correction early in ’25 is likely, albeit from a new all-time high.”
The prospect or not of a “Santa Claus Rally” during a seven-day period, which includes the last five trading days of the old year and the first two of the new one, continues to be a barometer of investors’ optimism into the new year.
Bloomberg L.P.
