Australia’s share market is poised to rise at the opening bell, underpinned by its exposure to energy stocks after oil prices surged last week on the threat of more conflict in the Middle East.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.9 per cent and got close to its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 341 points, or 0.8 per cent, to set its own record, while the Nasdaq composite clambered 1.2 per cent higher. It was a “grand slam” of a report, according to Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-sector investing within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She said policy makers at the Federal Reserve, who have been trying to pull off the difficult feat of keeping the economy humming while getting inflation under control, “must be smiling.
“This report tells the Fed that they still need to be careful as a strong labor market along with sticky housing/shelter data shows that it won’t be easy to engineer meaningfully lower inflation from here in the nearer term,” according to Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.