Australian futures on edge as RBA looms; Wall St mixed

Australian futures are pointing to a soft start when the ASX opens today, with investors eyeing up the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy review today which is expected to keep the benchmark rate on hold after an unexpectedly fast pace of inflation was revealed last week.

Meanwhile, stocks on Wall Street were mixed as Merck & Co and UnitedHealth Group led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was buoyed by Amazon’s multi-billion dollar deal with OpenAI to supply the artificial intelligence pioneer with computing power.

The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates are the latest nations said to be eyeing up the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment pact as countries grapple with US President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.

The rate that stops the nation

The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to keep the target cash rate 3.6% when it reviews policy today after September quarter inflation rose at a faster pace than analysts were picking, prompting bond traders to pare back their bets on a cut.

The kiwi dollar traded at 87.31 Australian cents at 7am in Auckland from 87.34 cents yesterday.

“The material upside surprise to Q3 CPI is likely to see the central bank leave rates on hold for some time,” Bank of New Zealand senior interest rates strategist Stuart Ritson said in a note. “The board isn’t expected to provide guidance on future changes in the policy rate instead emphasising the uncertainty from the interplay between inflation and labour market dynamics.”

Australian futures are pointing to a 0.2% decline for the S&P/ASX 200 index when trading opens across the Tasman.

Stocks on Wall Street were mixed with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.4% in late trading, with drugmaker Merck & Co down 2.9% and insurer UnitedHealth Group down 2.8%. Tylenol maker Kenvue surged 14% after consumer goods firm Kimberly-Clark said it will buy the firm for US$40 billion.

Data darlings

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.7% with Amazon gaining 5% on a US$38 billion deal to supply OpenAI with computing power. Australian bitcoin and data centre firm IREN jumped 11% after striking a lease agreement for Microsoft to use its Nvidia chips, and separately agreed to buy graphics processing units from Dell.

Palantir Technologies was up 2.5% ahead of reporting its quarterly earnings after the closing bell.

Across the Atlantic, stock markets were mixed with the UK’s FTSE 100 down 0.2% ahead of the Bank of England’s policy review later this week. London’s biggest listed company AstraZeneca’s shareholders overwhelmingly approved a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, replacing its American depositary receipts on the Nasdaq. It will keep its listings in London and Stockholm.

Meanwhile, Germany’s DAX 30 gained 0.7% with automakers buoyed by optimism a shortage of semiconductors might be coming to an end. France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.1%.

Nikkei Asia reported the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates have applied to join the 12-nation Comprehensive and Progressive for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment pact in the latest effort by countries to mitigate the impact of US President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff regime.

The kiwi dollar traded at 57.09 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 57.23 cents yesterday after the US Institute for Supply Management survey showed manufacturing activity shrank at a faster pace last month.

There’s no major local data scheduled for today.

Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Graham Holtshausen on Unsplash.

This story has been updated to remove references to Chorus's upcoming annual meeting, which is in fact on Wednesday Nov 5, not Tuesday Nov 4.