Company Interview / the open: ASX to rally after Dow, S&P hit records

The local market is set to rally this morning with ASX futures up 1.05%. This comes after what was a mostly positive session on global markets overnight. 

On Wall Street, tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq lower, however the Dow rallied to a record high led by the materials and financials sectors and the S&P 500 recovered to also close at a new record. Investors also contemplated the Fed's outlook which was less hawkish than the market had expected. 

The number of Americans filing jobless claims rose to 236 thousand last week, the most in nearly four and a half years, despite claims data tends to be volatile around this time of year. Meanwhile, the Swiss National Bank has left its policy rate unchanged at 0%, as was widely expected. 

Gold has hit its highest level in more than a month, and silver has risen to another record. The US dollar has hit multi-month lows against the euro, Swiss franc, and sterling, whilst the Aussie dollar is back up to US66.6 cents.