Australia

Australian shares are set to open lower, after US stocks ended mixed, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closing at record highs.

ASX futures were down 0.35% or 30 points as of 8:30am on Wednesday, suggesting a lower open.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit new records, as investors grew more confident that the Federal Reserve is heading toward an interest-rate cut in two weeks.

Fed-funds futures indicate traders now see a 71% chance of another 0.25 percentage point cut in December, up from 59% a week ago. That would mark a third consecutive decrease and would take rates down by a 1 percentage point in 2024.

The S&P 500 added less than 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked down 0.2%.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was up 2.4% to US$73.57 a barrel, while gold was up 0.2% to US$2,643.78.

The Australian dollar was at 64.78 US cents, up from its previous close of 64.75.

Asia

Chinese shares closed mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 3,378.81, and the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.1% to 2,049.47.

Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index added 1.0% to 19,746.32.

Japanese shares closed higher. The Nikkei Stock Average gained 1.9% to 39,248.86.

India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX increased 1.3% to 80,845.75.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index lifted 0.6% to 8,359.41.

In Europe, shares closed higher. Germany's DAX rose 0.4% to 20,016.75, and France's CAC 40 added 0.3% to 7,255.42.

North America

US stocks ended mixed. The DJIA fell 0.2% to 44,705.53, the S&P 500 was unchanged at 6,049.88, and the Nasdaq gained 0.4% to 19,480.91.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Palantir Technologies Inc, surging 6.90%, Axon Enterprise Inc jumped 5.26%, and Texas Pacific Land Corp lifted 4.67%.

The biggest decliners were Microchip Technology Inc which dropped 7.01%, Intel Corp fell 6.10%, and ON Semiconductor Corp lost 5.57%.