The Australian share market is expected to open flat, following a mixed performance on Wall Street this morning.
Fed keeps rates on hold
US stocks began the day at record levels, but retreated from those highs following the Federal Reserve's decision to leave US interest rates unchanged overnight.
The Fed's decision came as no surprise as the market priced in a 1.5 per cent chance it would happen.
In its monetary policy statement, the Fed pointed to solid economic growth and a strengthening labour market, and downplayed the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma — hinting at a rate hike in December.
The central bank has already raised rates twice this year, and the market is pricing in an almost 100 per cent chance of a rate hike next month.
The Dow Jones (+0.3pc) and S&P 500 (+0.2pc) made slights gains, while the Nasdaq slipped by 0.2 per cent.
US investors also digested private sector job figures from ADP and Moody's overnight, showing 235,000 new jobs were added last month — which was higher than expected.
These figures usually serve as a preview to the US Government's official monthly jobs report, which will be released on Friday.
Australian construction and trade in focus
The Australian dollar lifted against the greenback (+0.2pc), and is buying 76.7 US cents.
It also rebounded against the British pound (+0.5pc), Euro (+0.5pc) and Japanese yen (+0.7pc).
In economic news, the Bureau of Statistics will release two sets of economic figures — building approvals and trade balance for the month of September.
"Building Approvals is a notoriously volatile monthly series and we have no strong predisposition for September’s reading," said NAB's head of foreign exchange strategy Ray Attrill.
"Solid underlying population demand points to activity remaining high ... we look for a 1.1 per cent gain in September."
This would be higher than the August result, which saw building approvals lift by 0.4 per cent (seasonally adjusted).
As for national trade, Deutsche Bank's economists are forecasting "little change in the trade surplus from [August's] last month's $1 billion outturn".
