Wall Street finished its last October trading day on a high, and that investor optimism is likely to flow to the ASX on Wednesday morning.
Tech rally behind the gains
Some of the best performing stocks in New York overnight were Kellogg's and Mondelez — the company which owns the Cadbury brand in Australia.
Both companies posted better-than-expected earnings, which drove their share prices higher by more than 5 per cent each.
Apple shares also rose to a record-high of $US169, thanks to generally positive reviews of its new iPhone X so far.
About three-quarters of the S&P 500's gains in October were due to technology stocks, according to Standard & Poor's.
S&P also noted that more than half of the index's gains were driven by just five stocks — the tech giants Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft.
All of them, except for Apple, have already reported their third-quarter earnings, and their stronger-than-expected results boosted their stock prices.
The tech-driven Nasdaq was the index which lifted the most, up 0.4 per cent to 6,728. It also closed higher for the fourth straight month.
The Dow Jones' and S&P 500's gains were comparatively modest, rising by about 0.1 per cent each. Both indexes posted their seventh consecutive monthly gain.
Australian dollar falls
The Australian dollar has fallen by 0.4 per cent against the greenback, and is buying 76.55 US cents.
It also dropped against the British pound (-1pc) and Euro (-0.4pc).
The UK currency rose sharply overnight ahead of tomorrow's Bank of England (BoE) monetary policy meeting.
The market is pricing in a high probability the UK central bank will announce an interest rate hike on Thursday.
"Market pricing for a BoE rate hike tomorrow night edged a little higher from just under a 87 per cent chance to a near 88 per cent chance as UK short end yields pushed marginally higher," said NAB's director of economics David de Garis.
As for Australia's key commodity, iron ore, it fell slightly and is now trading at $US58.52 per tonne.
