Australia’s sharemarket is set to extend its record run on Monday after US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell unleashed a wave of money on Wall Street, signalling the central bank would cut interest rates as soon as next month.
Futures suggest the S&P/ASX 200 Index will jump 84 points, or 0.9 per cent, to an all-time high of 9011 points, extending the rally that pushed the bourse above the key 9000 level for the first time last week, turbocharged by a robust start to Australia’s August reporting season.
But it is the prospect of an imminent rate cut in the world’s largest economy that is expected to dominate price action on Monday as US investors piled into stocks and cryptocurrencies on Friday following an unexpectedly dovish tone from the Fed chairman at the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“The market is looking at any commentary that’s indicating that we’re going to have a lot more rate cuts,” said Arian Neiron, managing director and head of Asia-Pacific at VanEck. “It’s addicted to low rates, and it has been for quite some time, and the converse of that is the market is addicted to growth stories … So anything that’s sensitive to a low rate complex like small caps [is running].”
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/asx-to-open-higher-after-powell-unleashes-buying-spree-20250825-p5mpgs