US stocks are mostly quiet with indexes hanging around their records ahead of a big jobs report due on Friday. The crypto market had much more action, and bitcoin briefly burst to a record above $USUS103,000 ($US160,000).
The S&P 500 was edging up by 0.1 per cent after setting an all-time high for the 56th time this year the day before to improve one of its best years of the millennium. The Dow Jones was down 122 points, or 0.3 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 per cent from its own record set the day before.
Wall Street has had a quiet session.Credit: AP
The Australian sharemarket is set to edge higher, with futures at 5.04am AEDT pointing to a rise of 1 point at the open. The ASX added 0.2 per cent on Thursday.
Bitcoin powered above $US100,000 the night before, after President-elect Donald Trump chose a crypto advocate, Paul Atkins, as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cryptocurrency has climbed dramatically from less than $US70,000 on Election Day, but it quickly pared back toward $US101,000, according to CoinDesk.
Sharps swings for bitcoin are nothing new, and they took stocks of companies enmeshed in the crypto world on a similar ride. After rising as much as 9 per cent in early trading, MicroStrategy, a company that’s been raising cash just to buy bitcoin, swung to a loss of 2.3 per cent. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global slipped 1.1 per cent after likewise erasing a big early gain.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks of airlines helped lead the way following the latest bumps up to financial forecasts from carriers.
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American Airlines Group soared 15.3 per cent after saying it’s making more in revenue during the last three months of 2024 than it expected, and it will likely make a bigger profit than it had earlier forecast.
The airline also chose Citi to be its exclusive partner for credit cards that give miles in its loyalty program. That should help its cash coming in from co-branded credit card and other partners grow by about 10 per cent annually.
