ASX set to slip, Wall Street sets more records

The US stock market set more records after Apple, Estee Lauder and others joined the list of companies delivering fatter profits for the start of the year than analysts expected. Easing oil prices also helped steady the stock markets around the world that were still open on the May Day holiday.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent to its latest all-time high and closed out a fifth straight winning week. That’s its longest such streak since 2024. The Dow Jones dipped 152 points, or 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9 per cent to its own record.

The Australian sharemarket is set to retreat, with futures on Saturday pointing to a fall of 23 points, or 0.3 per cent, at the open. The Australian dollar was trading at US71.99¢ at 5.15am AEST. Front of mind for investors this week will be the Reserve Bank’s interest rates decision on Tuesday afternoon.

Apple led the way on Wall Street after the iPhone seller reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Because it’s one of Wall Street’s biggest stocks in terms of overall size, Apple’s rally of 3.3 per cent was by far the strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

Stock prices generally follow the path of corporate profits over the long term, and US companies have been blowing past expectations for earnings in the first three months of 2026. That’s even with the war with Iran and high oil prices souring confidence for many US households.

A little more than a quarter of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported already, and 84 per cent of them have topped analysts’ estimates, according to FactSet. The index is on track to deliver roughly 15 per cent growth in profit from a year earlier.

Estee Lauder’s stock climbed 3.4 per cent after reporting better earnings than expected, thanks in part to strength in China, and it raised some of its upcoming financial forecasts. Sandisk jumped 8.3 per cent after the maker of storage for computers blew past analysts’ expectations for profit thanks in part to voracious demand from data centres.

Colgate-Palmolive added 2.2 per cent after likewise delivering bigger results than expected, though CEO Noel Wallace said it expects “volatile macroeconomic conditions and slower category growth to continue in 2026.”

The main uncertainty for the global economy is where oil prices are heading because of the Iran war. Oil prices spurted higher early this week on worries that the war will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed for a long time. That would in turn keep oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide.

But such moves have been quick to reverse throughout the war, as hopes rise and fall for a reopening of the strait. On Friday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2 per cent to settle at $US108.17. Brent was selling for a little more than $US70 per barrel before the war began.

That rise since the end of February helped the two biggest US oil companies report stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But stock prices nevertheless fell for both Exxon Mobil, 1 per cent, and Chevron, 1.4 per cent, as oil prices regressed Friday and each reported drops in net income from a year earlier.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 21.11 points to 7,230.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 152.87 to 49,499.27, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 222.13 to 25,114.44.

The fall in oil prices helped Treasury yields ease in the bond market. So did a report in the morning that said growth for US manufacturing was a touch softer last month than economists expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.38 per cent from 4.40 per cent late Thursday. Such dips can make mortgages and other loans for US households and businesses cheaper, and they also tend to give upward pushes to prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.

Many stock markets worldwide were closed for May Day. Among the indexes still trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4 per cent, and London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 per cent.

AP

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