The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the standout in overnight trading as it pushed to a new record, while European markets were in the doldrums as Germany faces a snap election and France’s credit rating was downgraded.
The Nasdaq was up 1.1% at 7am in Auckland, outperforming the 0.1% dip for Dow Jones Industrial Average with Google-parent Alphabet and Microsoft among the day’s gainers.
US President-elect Donald Trump unveiled plans to create 100,000 jobs in the artificial intelligence sector and related infrastructure with Softbank Group to invest at least US$100 billion in the world’s biggest economy over the next four years.
Meanwhile, bitcoin climbed 3.4% to a new record, with Microstrategy buying more of the cryptocurrency ahead of joining the Nasdaq 100 index.
“The addition of MicroStrategy to the Nasdaq 100 index – a company which basically raises equity to take leveraged bets on bitcoin in a perpetual motion – has supported sentiment for the cryptocurrency,” Bank of New Zealand senior markets strategist Jason Wong said in a note.
Reuters analysis of Truveta health records showed increased first-time diagnoses of sleep apnoea, type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease within 15 days of a patient being prescribed a GLP-1 weight-loss drug, such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
It's political
It was more dour across the pond where France’s CAC fell 0.7% after Moody’s Investors Service cut the country’s credit rating to Aa2 after President Emmanuel Macron named Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister this year, while Germany’s DAX declined 0.5% after parliament accepted Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s offer to withdraw its confidence in him, paving the way for a snap election. Weak Chinese retail spending also weighed on luxury European stocks.
And in Canada, finance minister Chrystia Freeland quit after clashing with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over how to handle potential US tariffs.
The UK’s FTSE declined 0.5%, with gambling operator Entain sliding 6.3% after the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre claimed the Ladbrokes owner breached anti-money laundering rules.
Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange is considering granting fast-fashion retailer Shein a waiver to selling at least 10% of its shares in an initial public offering, according to a Reuters report.
Locally, the government’s half-year economic and fiscal update is expected to show the Crown will take longer to return to surplus than previously thought, meaning it will need to borrow more for its spending programme.
The kiwi dollar was little changed, trading at 57.80 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 57.79 cents at 5pm yesterday, and was at 90.71 Australian cents from 90.64 cents.