ASX edges higher as Wall Street climbs; Corporate Travel plummets

The Australian sharemarket has climbed at the open after stocks rose on Wall Street overnight as gains by big technology companies and relatively steady oil prices and bond yields helped boost the market after a downbeat start to the week.

The S&P/ASX 200 was up 12.4 points, or 0.1 per cent, in early trade to 8990.8. The ASX lost 1 per cent on Wednesday. The Australian dollar is stronger at US71.71¢

Nvidia rallied more than 3 per cent, lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.6 per cent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite both gained 0.5 per cent.

Brent crude settled up 1 per cent at $US95.63 as the Iran conflict continued. Chevron edged 0.3 per cent higher after confirming it will expand operations in Venezuela.

Wall Street has been under pressure this week from rising oil prices and a bond-market sell-off. The rocky start to September follows a mostly positive August during which every major index notched a gain for the month.

However, Wall Street remains gripped by anxiety over rising prices, government debt and the impact of global conflicts on the US and the global economy.

Technology and communication services stocks accounted for some of the strongest gains Wednesday. Chipmaker Nvidia, whose big market value tend to give it more influence over the broader market’s direction, rose 3.2 per cent, while computer memory seller Micron Technology gained 2.4 per cent.

Meta added 2.5 per cent as it released its most powerful artificial intelligence model yet, with its chief AI officer saying its capabilities are edging closer to top competitors. Developers on Wednesday will be able to access and pay for Muse Spark 1.3, an updated version of its most advanced model, the company said. It will soon roll out the update to users of Meta’s social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, as well as Meta AI.

“This is our biggest jump so far on model performance,” Meta’s chief AI officer Alexandr Wang said in an interview on Wednesday, pointing to advancements in the model’s coding and agentic capabilities, or ability to complete tasks on behalf of human users. Wang said the update put Meta on par with recently released AI models from its rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.

Dell Technologies jumped 15.8 per cent for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks after delivering strong second-quarter profits amid accelerating demand for artificial intelligence computing. The company also raised its fiscal year revenue outlook.

Palo Alto Networks also reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street’s expectations, citing a strong market for AI cybersecurity, but its shares fell 9.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, banks and credit card issuers also helped boost the market. Capital One Financial rose 2.5 per cent and American Express added 1.8 per cent.

Oil prices held relatively steady despite the intensification in the six-month long US war with Iran. The US attacked sites in Iran over the weekend, ending a lull in major hostilities and Iran has since retaliated against sites around the Gulf region.

Prices for Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.7 per cent to $US95.33 a barrel. Energy stocks were mixed.