Stocks rose on Monday driven by a rally in tech leaders as Wall Street focuses on a key artificial intelligence conference and new monetary policy guidance from the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 76 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 gained 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8%.
Nvidia shares gained 1.3% on the first day of the company’s GTC Conference — where the chipmaker is expected to showcase its latest inroads in artificial intelligence. CEO Jensen Huang is also slated to give a widely anticipated keynote speech later in the day. Shares had climbed as high as 4% at one stage in earlier trading.
Shares in Alphabet were up 5% after Bloomberg News reported that Apple was in talks with Google to include the company’s Gemini AI in its iPhones.
The market is also eagerly anticipating the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting this week. The two-day policy Federal Open Market Committee meeting kicks off on Tuesday and will end with an announcement Wednesday.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, Fed funds futures are currently pricing in a 99% likelihood that the Fed will leave benchmark interest rates unchanged this week. However, the expectation for a June cut has ticked down in recent days to about 55%.
A hotter-than-expected February core and wholesale inflation reading frustrated equities and sparked anxiety that the central bank may be partial toward higher interest rates for longer before its policy meeting begins.
Other Overseas data due out includes Japan January industrial production and US February housing starts and building permits.
Iron Ore prices rallied over 4% to finish back above $100 per tonne at $104 per tonne as China reported stronger-than-expected numbers for retail and fixed asset investment for the first two months of 2024. Retail sales rose 5.5% and industrial production was up 7%, both beating analysts’ expectations.
In domestic markets all eyes will be on the Reserve Bank’s policy statement at 2.30pm and governor Michele Bullock’s press conference an hour later. Market expectations are for no change to current rates.
Futures
The SPI futures are pointing to a flat start.
Currency
One Australian dollar at 7.35am was buying 65.58 US cents.
Commodities
Gold added 0.09 per cent. Silver lost 0.56 per cent. Copper added 0.13 per cent. Oil gained 2.36 per cent.
Figures around the globe
European markets closed lower. London’s FTSE fell 0.06 per cent, Frankfurt lost 0.02 per cent, and Paris closed 0.20 per cent lower.
Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 2.67 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.10 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.99 per cent..
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.07 per cent higher at 7,675.85.
Ex-dividends
Adrad Hldings (ASX:AHL) is paying 1.33 cents fully franked
Auckland Internation (ASX:AIA) is paying 6.3595 cents unfranked
Briscoe Group (ASX:BGP) is paying 15.3932 cents unfranked
Credit Corp Group (ASX:CCP) is paying 15 cents fully franked
LGI Limited (ASX:LGI) is paying 1.2 cents fully franked
Seek Limited (ASX:SEK) is paying 19 cents fully franked
Dividends payable
Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC)
Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF)
Resimac Group Ltd (ASX:RMC)
HiTech Group Australia Ltd (ASX:HIT)
REA Group Ltd (ASX:REA)
Baby Bunting Group Ltd (ASX:BBN)
Johns Lyng Group Ltd (ASX:JLG)
Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure Ltd (ASX:DBI)
Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.
