Australian shares are poised to fall as US stocks cooled further, but Tesla provided a late boost to Wall Street after surpassing earnings estimates for the three months to the end of September, with the electric carmaker turning around a slide that began earlier this year.

In an after-market update, the Elon Musk-founded company said net income had hit $US2.2 billion ($3.3 billion) in the three-month period, up 17 per cent on the same time last year. It has been attempting to turn around poor new car sales over the last year through discounting and other promotion.