Australian market to open higher

THE Australian market looks set to open comfortably higher following a positive but lacklustre lead from Wall Street.

THE Australian market looks set to open comfortably higher following a positive but lacklustre lead from Wall Street, and after the Reserve Bank highlighted housing market risks, lower inflation and growth concerns in China.

At 0700 AEST on Wednesday, the share price futures index was up 27 points, or 0.46 per cent, at 5,871.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19 per cent, but both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended flat, up 0.06 and 0.07 per cent, respectively, with investors staying on the sidelines ahead of the first-quarter earnings season and fretting about President Donald Trump’s ability to deliver on tax reform and other promises.

Locally, no major economic or equities news is expected on Wednesday. However, Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer and Atlassian co-CEO Scott Farquhar are listed among the speakers at the Amazon Web Services Sydney summit — a major summit on cloud computing services.

The Australian market on Tuesday fell more than 0.25 per cent after the RBA said it was keeping its cash rate at the record low of 1.5 per cent and warned of likely near-future risks to the economy — housing market risks, lower inflation and growth concerns in China — in its commentary.

The comments also hit the Australia dollar, said EasyMarkets currency dealer Paul Clifford.

“Those three things have weighed on the currency and while the move has not been enormous, it certainly sets the tone for the rest of the week, partly because Donald Trump and Chinese leaders will be meeting Thursday and Friday to discuss trade,” Mr Clifford said.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 16.1 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 5,856.6 points.

The broader All Ordinaries index dropped 13.9 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 5,895.8 points..

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar is again treading water after falling to a three-week low following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s announcement it was keeping its cash rate on hold.

The local currency was trading at 75.65 US cents at 0700 AEST on Wednesday, from 75.68 on Tuesday.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 0700 AEST

One Australian dollar buys:

* 75.65 US cents, from 75.68 on Tuesday

* 83.78 Japanese yen, from 83.60 yen

* 70.87 euro cents, from 71.01 cents

* 60.79 British pence, from 60.87 pence

* 108.50 New Zealand cents, from 108.40 NZ cents

(*Currency closes taken at 1700 AEST previous local session)