The Australian sharemarket is set for strong gains this morning after Wall Street bounced between gains and losses overnight as trade tensions between the US and China continued to simmer and comments by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell fuelled optimism for interest rate cuts.

ASX futures were up 74 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 8994 as of 6.59am AEDT, forecasting strong gains at the open. It would be the second day of rising share prices after a rally in mining stocks pushed the local bourse up 0.2 per cent on Tuesday. The Aussie dollar traded at $64.83¢ at 7.13am.

US stocks wound up mixed after a rollercoaster day where the S&P 500 plunged in the morning, rallied by midday to trade up 0.4 per cent in its biggest down-to-up reversal since early April, and then fell back to close down 0

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