(Reuters) - Australian shares are set to move slightly higher at Thursday's open, following a positive end to Wednesday on Wall Street and higher commodity prices.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday after U.S. crude stocks rose less than expected while iron ore futures in key market China climbed to their strongest in three weeks. In the U.S., the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 1.34 percent. [O/R][IRONORE/][.N]
The local share price index futures <YAPcm1> rose about 1 percent or 55 points to 5,845, a 3.8-point premium to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index <.AXJO> close. The benchmark slipped 0.3 percent on Wednesday.
Australia is set to publish unemployment data later in the day.
Meanwhile, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index <.NZ50> rose 0.3 percent in early trade, due to gains in telecom and industrial stocks.
The biggest prop on the index was Spark New Zealand Ltd <SPK.NZ>, which was trading as much as 1.5 percent higher.
(Reporting by Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
