Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s markets live blog, where we’ll bring you the latest price action and news on the ASX and beyond.

A rally on Wall Street overnight sets the tone for local market action today.

The Dow Jones index rose 0.2 per cent, the S&P 500 was up 1.6 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.6 per cent.

Seven out of the 11 S&P 500 sectors advanced, led by technology and consumer discretionary stocks. Healthcare, real estate and consumer staples were the weakest.

ASX futures were up 17 points or 0.2 per cent to 8,078 at 7:00am AEDT.

At the same time, the Australian dollar was flat at 65.41 US cents.

Brent crude oil was up 2.7 per cent, trading at $US80.71 a barrel.

Spot gold was up 1.6 per cent to $US2,447.14.

Iron ore rose 2.5 per cent to $US101.55 a tonne.