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Australian shares are heading toward a flat open on Wednesday in Week 26, despite Wall Street enjoying a rally across the S&P 500, which added +1.1%, and the Nasdaq, which cracked a new record after advancing +1.5% to close.
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While eager U.S. traders spent most of their day buying up equities after the Israel-Iran ceasefire (which is holding for now), Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stymied optimism while addressing Congress.
The bearish chairman said the Fed Reserve – which remains split on when to cut – didn’t want to rush into anything before advising, “many paths are possible here.”
Between that and the FTSE staying flat, Oz traders seem happy keeping powder dry today.
In ASX news, New Zealand accounting heavyweight Xero (ASX:XRO) is making a bumper acquisition move, buying up U.S. bill pay platform Melio for as much as A$4 billion. Xero is this month on the hook for A$3.9B in cash and scrip.
The Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) is back in headlines too, with investors today voting on the $300M investment from Bally’s and Investment Holdings.
We have another float at 11am, too — Infragreen Group is following Virgin (ASX:VGN) and Greatland (ASX:GPP) onto the bourse this week; the infrastructure player is listing under ticker “IFN” at $1/share. It’s looking to raise $40M.
After that is May inflation data, which we’ll get a look at from 11.30am Sydney time.
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Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 64.8 US cents.
To commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore has dipped as much as -1% to sell at $92.85 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is down another -4.8% today, at $67.99,
Gold is selling at $3,326 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures have been whacked -3.7%, to $3.54 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
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