The Australian share market may begin its day higher, despite Wall Street’s struggle to hold onto any of its gains from earlier in the session.
Key points:
- Investors are worried the US Fed’s aggressive rate hikes may lead to a recession
- Australian dollar has dropped 9.6pc since its April peak (76.6 US cents)
- Oil prices fell by 4pc on concerns that a global downturn may reduce fuel demand
ASX futures were up 0.4 per cent, to 6,412 points, by 8:40am AEST on Thursday.
US markets were weighed down by comments about inflation from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, who appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday (local time).
He said the Fed was “strongly committed” to bringing down inflation, which had reached its highest level in 40 years, while trying not to cause a recession in the process.
However, Mr Powell said that achieving a “soft landing” for the US economy would be “very challenging”.
The Fed chair said he…
