Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.
Outlook for the day: Positive after US stocks hit new heights.
ASX futures: up 21 points or 0.27%
Overnight themes:
Two of Wall Street's three major share benchmarks closed at records in choppy trade ahead of an earnings update tonight from market heavyweight Nvidia and the minutes from this month's Federal Reserve policy meeting.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.25% to a new closing high. The Nasdaq also finished at a fresh peak, up 0.22%. The Dow firmed 0.17%.
Traditional defensive sectors outperformed. The pick of the sectors were utilities +0.97%, consumer staples +0.6% and financials +0.57%. Drags included energy -0.51%, industrials -0.33% and real estate -0.05%.
"Investors are sort of just sitting on their hands for today because there are two important things that will be coming out tomorrow, Fed minutes combined with Nvidia earnings, so I don't think people want to make any big bets ahead of that" - Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research (per Reuters).
Chipmaker Nvidia, now the US's third-largest company by market cap, firmed 0.64% ahead of tonight's Q1 earnings. The company has become the flagship for an AI revolution that has helped power US stocks to new highs. The company will update the market following the close of regular trade tonight.
Also tonight: the minutes from the latest Fed meeting, which will provide further clues to the timing of interest rate cuts. Overnight, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he would need to see "several months" of declining inflation before considering rate cuts. Market pricing currently implies two cuts before year-end.
This month's fierce commodities rally took a breather as the US dollar extended a tentative recovery from last week's four-week low. The Bloomberg Commodity Index declined 0.28%. Oil, gold, London copper, nickel, lithium and natural gas retreated. Iron ore, US copper and silver resisted the trend. The S&P materials sector finished almost flat.
Key events today:
Minutes from this month's US Federal Reserve policy meeting - tonight
US home sales - tonight
S&P 500: up 13 points or 0.25%
Dow: up 66 points or 0.17%
Nasdaq: up 38 points or 0.22%
Dollar: down 0.09% to 66.66 US cents
Iron ore (Dalian): up 1.68% to US$125.45
Brent crude: down 83 US cents or 0.99% to US$82.88
Natural gas: down 3.37% to US$2.6583
Gold: down US$12.60 or 0.58% to US$2,245.90
Silver: up 0.64% to US$31.978
NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: down 0.5%
Bitcoin: up 0.43% to US$69,697
Copper (LME): down 0.62% to US$10,822
Nickel (LME): down 0.72% to US$21,290
Uranium (spot price): up 0.99% to US$92.75
Lithium carbonate (China spot): down 0.18% to US$14,774
