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By Stan Choe
October 10, 2025 — 6.47am
The Australian sharemarket is poised for a lower start after Wall Street took a pause as US stocks and even the price of gold pull back from record highs.
ASX futures were down 38 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 8957 as of 6.59 am AEDT, suggesting the market will give up its 0.3 per cent gain from Thursday. The Aussie dollar traded 0.5 per cent lower at US65.53¢ at 7.17 am as the US dollar climbed toward a 10-week-high.
Wall Street took a break from its relentless rally over the past weeks, setting the scene for a softer session on the ASX.Credit: Bloomberg
After the iron ore miners’ gains on Thursday, Lynas Rare Earths could be one of the companies in the spotlight during Friday’s session after China announced curbs on its exports of the materials, which are critical for the making of everything from consumer electronics to jet engines. US rare earths miners rallied as the move fuelled bets that non-Chinese suppliers will benefit.
On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent, coming off its latest all-time high and its eighth gain in the last nine days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5 per cent and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1 per cent.
Gold fell 1.5 per cent to trade back below $US4000 following its stellar rally this year, while Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. They’re taking a moment following big runs driven in large part by expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to support the world’s largest economy. Silver hit $US50 for the first time since the Hunt Brothers’ 1980 squeeze. Oil sank amid cooling tensions in the Middle East.
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Financial markets have been so relentless, delivering a roughly 35 per cent leap for the S&P 500 since a low in April, that worries are rising that stock prices may have shot too high and become too expensive. Concerns are particularly strong about the frenzy lifting stocks related to artificial-intelligence technology.
Dell Technologies sank 5.2 per cent for one of the market’s bigger losses, but that only trimmed its surge since talking up its AI growth opportunities earlier in the week. It’s still up 11 per cent for the week so far.
Tesla fell 0.7 per cent. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary evaluation of its “Full Self-Driving” system due to safety concerns.
Those losses helped offset a 4.3 per cent ascent for Delta Air Lines, which reported a stronger profit for the Northern hemisphere summer than analysts expected. Delta also gave a forecast for profit over the full year that topped analysts’ estimates. Its president, Glen Hauenstein, highlighted a broad-based acceleration in sales trends over the last six weeks, including for business travel.
Such reports from companies are taking on more significance, offering windows into the strength of the economy. That’s because the US government’s shutdown is delaying reports that would clearly show how the overall economy is doing. This is the second week where the government has not published its update on unemployment claims, for example, a report that usually guides Wall Street’s trading each Thursday.
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PepsiCo rose 4.2 per cent after it delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, saying momentum improved for its drinks business in North America. Delivering bigger profits is one of two ways that companies can make their stock prices look less expensive following their big rallies. The other is if their stock prices fall.
Akero Therapeutics leaped 16.3 per cent after Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy, said it would buy the South San Francisco-based drug developer. The price tag could reach $US5.2 billion ($7.9 billion) if Akero’s lead product candidate wins federal regulatory approval.
In other international markets, indexes were mixed in Europe after Italy’s Ferrari tumbled 15.4 per cent after making profit forecasts that were below analyst expectations.
Stocks in Shanghai leaped 1.3 per cent after trading resumed there following a holiday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.8 per cent for another one of the world’s bigger moves. Technology giant SoftBank Group surged 11.4 per cent after it announced a $US5.4 billion deal to acquire the robotics unit of Swiss engineering firm ABB.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.14 per cent from 4.13 per cent late on Wednesday.
AP, with staff writers
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