The Australian sharemarket is set to drop at the open as Wall Street sank after US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned that trade tensions could spur inflation and the central bank is in no rush to cut interest rates.
Futures indicate that the S&P/ASX 200 Index is poised to lose 24 points or 0.3 per cent to 7762 at the start of trade. That’s after the S&P 500 Index sank 2.2 per cent and the Nasdaq 100 Index plunged 3 per cent on Wall Street.
Equity losses ramped up in the afternoon as Powell began to speak with selling broad-based – around 90 per cent of stocks in the S&P 500 finished in the red.
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/asx-to-open-down-as-nvidia-and-powell-spark-wall-street-sell-off-20250416-p5lsdg