Australia’s sharemarket is set to move higher on Thursday after a rally in big tech stocks led the U.S. market to a higher close, lifting the Nasdaq to an all-time high and helping Wall Street claw back most of its losses from earlier in the week.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent for its first gain this week. The benchmark index remains near the record it set last week after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 per cent. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, closed 0.9 per cent higher. The gain was good enough to nudge the index past the record high it set last Thursday.

Futures are pointing to a 0.5 per cent rise in the ASX200, after Wednesday’s fall of 0.6 per cent. The Australian dollar was fetching 65.36 US cents at 6.50 am AEST.

Nvidia rose 1.8 per cent and became the first public company to exceed $US4 trillion ($6.1 trillion) in value after its share price briefly topped $US164 each in the early going. Shares in the AI boom poster child were going for around $US14 per share at the start of 2023.

The tech rally in the US came as Wall Street continued to weigh the latest developments in President Donald Trump’s renewed push this week to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe.

Wednesday was initially set as a deadline by Trump for countries to make deals with the U.S. or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April, one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam, the window for negotiations has been extended to August 1.

This latest phase in the White House’s trade war heightens the threat of potentially more severe tariffs that’s been hanging over the global economy. Higher taxes on imported goods could hinder U.S. economic growth, if not increase recession risks.

On Tuesday, Trump said he would be announcing tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at a “very, very high rate, like 200 per cent.” He also said he would sign an executive order placing a 50 per cent tariff on copper imports, matching the rates charged on steel and aluminum.

Copper prices eased Wednesday after spiking a day earlier. Shares in mining company Freeport-McMoRan fell 1.5 per cent.

Financial markets swooned from day-to-day for weeks after the White House rolled out its proposed tariff hikes in the spring. With the new batch of U.S. taxes on imports not set to kick in until next month, that gives Wall Street a breather just as the next corporate earnings season is set to begin.

“I think most people are tired of tariff news and they’re starting to realise it just doesn’t matter much,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. “We’re pretty bullish about earnings. I think the rest of the market is too.”

Wall Street analysts predict that companies in the S&P 500 will deliver a combined 5 per cent annual growth in second-quarter earnings, according to FactSet. That would mark the lowest growth rate for the index since the fourth quarter of 2023.

Delta Air Lines kicks off earnings season on Thursday, with most analysts expecting the airline’s second-quarter profit to decline from a year ago. Delta and other major U.S. carriers have trimmed their flight schedules and pulled their forecasts this year as consumers pull back on travel and other nonessential spending due to uncertainty about how Trump’s tariffs will affect their budgets.

Gains in technology and communication services stocks outweighed declines in energy and other sectors Wednesday.

Microsoft rose 1.4 per cent, Meta gained 1.7 per cent and Google parent Alphabet added 1.3 per cent.

Amazon rose 1.4 per cent a day after the online retail giant kicked off Prime Day, extending it for the first time to four days.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 37.74 to 6,263.26. The Dow added 217.54 to 44,458.30, and the Nasdaq gained 192.87 to close at 20,611.34.

In bond market trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury slid to 4.34 per cent from 4.40 per cent late Tuesday.

In overseas markets, stock indexes closed broadly higher in Europe after a mixed finish in Asia.

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