The outlook for Australian stocks remains unclear after a mixed session on Wall Street overnight, where investors turned their attention to a likely bleak first-quarter reporting season.

Signs of a flattening coronavirus curve in Australia could help the benchmark ASX/200 when it resumes after the Easter break on Tuesday, although The Dow and S&P 500 fell after last week’s strong gains.

Amazon.com helped the tech-heavy Nasdaq gain ground.

US companies are preparing for a quarterly earnings season that is expected to be blighted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Oil prices are also mixed after an historic production-cut deal inked by major global oil producers failed to ease existing worries about virus-driven destruction of demand.

Gold, meanwhile, has soared to its highest in more than seven years as panicked investors scurried towards the safe-haven on fears of a coronavirus blow to the global economy.

The SPI200 futures contract rose 0.8 per cent to 5442.0 when it last traded on April 9.

The Australian dollar was buying 63.81 US cents at 0800 AEST, up from 62.29 US cents at the close of markets on Thursday.