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By Stan Choe
October 9, 2025 — 6.48am
The Australian sharemarket is set for a strong start on Thursday as US stocks got back to posting gains overnight, while the price of gold was pushing further past $US4000 per ounce.
ASX futures were up 41 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 9012 as of 6.33 am AEDT, smashing the 9000-mark. The gains come after three sessions in the red on the local bourse. The Australian dollar traded up 0.1 per cent at US65.86¢ as of 6.44 am.
vCredit: Bloomberg
Gains on Wall Street are expected to set the tone for the Australian market, with the S&P 500 back up 0.5 per cent a day in late afternoon trade after snapping its seven-day winning streak, and on track to top its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up less than 0.1 per cent with an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9 per cent higher.
Trading on the New York Stock Exchange has been relatively muted recently following the US government’s latest shutdown. The closure has delayed the release of several major economic reports that usually move the market. Stocks have been drifting without them or other signals to alter expectations for continued cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, one of the major reasons the stock market has surged since April.
Another force that’s pushed the market to records is the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.
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Advanced Micro Devices climbed 8.9 per cent to add to its rally from earlier in the week after it announced an AI-related deal. It was the best performing stock in the S&P 500.
Close behind was Dell Technologies, which piled more gains onto its own rally from Tuesday, when it talked up growth opportunities related to AI. Dell rose 7.7 per cent. Tesla bounced back from its slump on Wednesday after revealing more affordable cars and rose 1.5 per cent.
AI-related stocks have broadly been on a tear. Nvidia has soared 40.4 per cent for the year so far. Oracle is up 74.4 per cent over the same time, while Palantir Technologies more than doubled with a 141.7 per cent surge.
The performances have been so strong that criticism is rising about prices having gone too far and too fast, like they did during the 2000 dot-com mania. That bubble ultimately imploded, and the S&P 500 halved in value.
Proponents say AI stocks are backed by big growth in profits, something that many dot-com stocks didn’t have at the turn of the millennium. But the Bank of England nevertheless warned on Wednesday of the rising risk that tech stock prices pumped up by the AI boom could face a “sudden correction.”
“On a number of measures, equity market valuations appear stretched, particularly for technology companies focused on Artificial Intelligence,” policymakers at the British central bank said in a report. With Big Tech companies accounting for an increasingly outsized share of sharemarkets, stocks are “particularly exposed should expectations around the impact of AI become less optimistic.”
Elsewhere on Wall Street, AST SpaceMobile jumped 9.2 per cent after Verizon Communications agreed to use its space-based network to offer service to mobile phone customers when needed, starting in 2026. Verizon slipped 0.6 per cent.
On the losing end of Wall Street was Jefferies, which fell 5.8 per cent. The investment bank disclosed some details about its exposure to First Brands Group, a supplier of aftermarket auto parts that filed for bankruptcy protection early last week.
Gold, meanwhile, continued its stellar year and rose further past $US4000 per ounce. Investors have traditionally seen gold as a way to protect against rising inflation, and its price has soared more than 50 per cent this year.
Worries are high about big debt loads that the US and other governments are building, which threaten to push inflation higher. Political instability around the world and expectations for rate cuts by the Fed are also helping to push up interest in gold.
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The Fed cut its main interest rate for the first time this year last month, and it hinted that more reductions may be on the way. Minutes from that last meeting released overnight showed growing concerns among Fed officials about the slowing job market.
Lower rates could help boost the job market and economy, but Fed officials say they’re also staying mindful of inflation, which remains above its target of 2 per cent in the US. Lower rates can give inflation more fuel.
In other international markets, indexes rose in Europe following a weaker finish in Asia.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.12 per cent from 4.14 per cent late on Tuesday.
AP, with staff writers
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