Good morning! I’ll be your guide through the latest finance and economic news.

The Australian share market is on track to start its day higher, with ASX futures gaining 0.5%.

It comes after a strong session for Wall Street’s tech-related stocks like Alphabet (+4.4%), Amazon (+2.2%), Meta (+2.2%), Nvidia (+3.3%) and Tesla (+4.7%).

This led to the Nasdaq Composite jumping 1.8% to a new record high of 20,041 points. (It’s also the first time the tech-driven stock index has risen above the 20,000-point milestone.)

It’s mainly because the odds of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve, at next week’s policy meeting, have risen to about 95% (almost certain).

What’s driving this confidence is the latest US inflation data, which showed consumer prices rising 0.3% in November (its highest in seven months), and 2.7% over the past year.

That was exactly what economists, surveyed by Reuters, had predicted. (They got it right this time!)

The broader S&P 500 index lifted 0.9% to 6,089 points, while the Dow Jones fell 0.1% to 44,202 points (as shares of UnitedHealth dropped 5.1%).

In commodities, spot gold rose above $US2,700 an ounce, while Brent crude oil jumped 2.1% to $US73.70 a barrel.

And while Australia’s Reserve Bank continues to keep interest rates on hold, its overseas peers have been cutting rates aggressively.

Overnight, the Bank of Canada slashed its benchmark rate by 50 basis points, and it’s widely expected the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank will also cut rates later today.

The Australian dollar was relatively flat at 63.7 US cents (its weakest level in more than a year).

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin, meanwhile, has jumped back above $US 101,000.