Investing.com - The Australian share market was trading in a tight range on Wednesday, as New York's trading patterns remain stable for a second consecutive session. The Nasdaq Composite was showing modest gains, while the S&P 500 remained marginally positive. In contrast, the Dow experienced a slight decline.
Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose by 1%, overturning a previous 0.5% drop, following Bloomberg's announcement that the tech giant will abandon its electric car project to re-focus on artificial intelligence.
Several companies are expected to release their financial results on Wednesday, including Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT), Worley Ltd (ASX:WOR), Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN), Kelsian Group Ltd (ASX:KLS), Light & Wonder Inc DRC (ASX:LNW), Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT), Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT), Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK), Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF), and Strike Energy Ltd (ASX:STX).
Shares in Beach Energy (ASX:BPT), EVT Ltd (ASX:EVT), Fortescue (ASX:FMG), Lottery Corporation Ltd (ASX:TLC), Telstra Group Ltd (ASX:TLS), and Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW) are set to trade ex-dividend.
By 8 am AEDT, ASX 200 Futures were up by 11 points or 0.1% to 7632, the Australian dollar increased by 0.1% to 65.43 US cents and Bitcoin rose by 4.8% to $US57,244 at 8 am AEDT.
On Wall Street, BHP Group Ltd ADR (NYSE:BHP) saw a 0.9% increase, Rio Tinto ADR (NYSE:RIO) added 0.5%, and Atlassian Corp Plc (NASDAQ:TEAM) lifted 0.8%. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) also rose by 0.3%, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) dipped by 0.1%. Apple experienced a 1% increase, Nvidia saw a marginal decrease of 0.02%, while Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rose by 1.1%, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell by 0.6%, and Meta (NASDAQ:META) increased by 0.9%.
The price of spot gold increased by 0.1% to $US2032.95/oz, Brent crude rose by 1.2% to $US83.52 a barrel, and iron ore increased by 1.7% to $US117.40 a tonne.
Investors are awaiting several significant US reports, including the fourth-quarter GDP due early Thursday AEDT, January's PCE Price Index data expected early Friday, and multiple February manufacturing PMI data reports.
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman stated that she is still inclined to wait before moving towards rate cuts, citing the necessity for incoming data to show that inflation is sustainably moving towards the 2% goal. Only then, she believes, it would be appropriate to gradually lower the policy rate to prevent monetary policy from becoming overly restrictive.
Locally, the fourth quarter construction work and monthly CPI indicator are scheduled for release at 11.30 am, followed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's policy decision at 12 pm.
Overseas data expected include Eurozone's February consumer and economic confidence data at 9 pm.