ASX expected to lift after strong day on Wall Street

Energy shares have bucked the trend with stellar annual gains of 57 per cent.

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Wall Street’s main indexes dropped more than 1 per cent on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq Composite Index hitting a 2022 closing low as rising COVID cases in China and geopolitical tensions added to fears of a likely recession in 2023.

However, investor preference for high-dividend yielding stocks with steady earnings has limited losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is down just 8.5 per cent for the year.

The Dow rose 345.09 points, or 1.05 per cent, to 33,220.8; the S&P 500 gained 66.06 points, or 1.75 per cent, at 3,849.28; and the Nasdaq Composite added 264.80 points, or 2.59 per cent, at 10,478.09.

Tesla Inc shares rose after chief executive Elon Musk told staff they should not be “bothered by stock market craziness.”

For 2022, Tesla’s 66 per cent slump and Amazon.com’s 50 per cent drop played a big part in the S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector’s 38 per cent loss. Some $US1.6 trillion worth of shareholder value evaporated after investors abandoned high-growth stocks with pricey earnings multiples.

Volume on US exchanges was 8.78 billion shares, compared with the 10.95 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.