Australian shares are set to open flat, as futures pared earlier gains in line with Wall Street pulling back slightly from an opening advance that helped both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reset intraday records.
The two US benchmark also had closing record highs. Oil retraced an earlier slide that took it briefly below $US100 a barrel; it was trading slightly above $US101 in late trade in New York.
S&P/ASX 200 futures were down 1 point to 8764 near 7am (AEDT), reversing an earlier gain of more than 20 points. The S&P 500 closed up 0.6 per cent to 7818.93. Utilities paced 10 of the 11 industry sectors higher.
The S&P 500 earlier reset its intraday record high at 7844.52. The Nasdaq Composite also reset its record high, to 27,722.75, in morning trade; it closed up 0.5 per cent to 27,599.79.
“The strong performance of the IT sector has helped to drag the S&P 500 index to a new all-time high today,” Capital Economics’ James Reilly said in a note.
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/s-and-p-500-resets-record-high-20261007-p613d9