The Australian sharemarket slipped at the open, weighed by losses in the major banks and consumer staples.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.2%, or by 20.6 points to 8960.8 at the start of trade, dragged lower by declines in six out of the 11 sectors. Overnight on Wall Street, the tech heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached record closing highs, up 0.7% and 0.4%, respectively.

On the ASX, the financials sector was among the worst performers, with all the major banks in the red. Index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank fell 0.9%, Westpac slipped 0.6%, National Australia Bank 0.5% and ANZ 0.6%.

Consumer staples stocks also recorded losses, with supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles down 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively.

On Wall Street, AMD said the deal could generate tens of billions of new revenue, and could lead to OpenAI acquiring a 10% stake in the chipmaker. AMD’s shares surged as much as 38% before easing to close up 23.7%.

“As equity markets continue to grind to new highs on alluring hopes of the AI capex boom being amplified by fiscal and monetary stimulus and ‘Goldilocks’ conditions delivering double-digit profit growth, signs are increasing that all the dreams being priced into markets may not come true,” Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Lisa Shalett said.

In commodities, gold rose to a fresh record, nearing $US4000-an-ounce, as looming US interest rate cuts and the prospect of a prolonged US federal government shutdown lifted demand. The precious metal rallied as much as 2.2% to top $US3970 an ounce in the week’s opening session in New York.

The corporate regulator has approved alternative exchange Cboe Australia’s listing market application, in an approval that increases direct competition for sharemarket floats with the ASX. The approval allows Cboe to list new companies on its platform, in addition to its existing ability to list exchange-traded funds.