ASX set to rise after Wall St rallies on Fed pause hopes

Investor focus now shifts to first-quarter earnings season, which jumps into full swing on Friday when a trio of big banks, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo report.

“Tomorrow’s bank earnings could give insight into the strength of regional banks and future lending activity,” Carter added. “It will be interesting to see what banks say tomorrow about future economic growth.”

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Analysts expect aggregate first-quarter S&P 500 earnings to come in 5.2 per cent below the year-ago quarter, a stark reversal from the 1.4 per cent year-on-year growth seen at the beginning of the quarter, according to Refinitiv.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 383.19 points, or 1.14 per cent, to 34,029.69; the S&P 500 gained 54.27 points, or 1.33 per cent, at 4,146.22; and the Nasdaq Composite added 236.94 points, or 1.99 per cent, at 12,166.27.

Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, all but real estate ended the session higher, with communication services and consumer discretionary enjoying the largest gains, both jumping 2.3 per cent.

Delta Air Lines Inc shares fell 1.1 per cent following the company’s first-quarter profit miss. Shares of Harley-Davidson slid 1.7 per cent after the motorcycle maker announced chief financial officer Gina Goetter was leaving the company at the end of April. Groupon Inc jumped 4 per cent after the company appointed Jiri Ponrt to succeed Damien Schmitz as chief financial officer. Netflix rose 4.6 per cent after Wedbush said the streaming platform’s revenue growth of new subscribers could drive up profitability.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 2.71-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.55-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 69 new highs and 140 new lows. Volume on US exchanges was 10.40 billion shares, compared with the 11.51 billion average over the past 20 trading days.

Reuters