Global Markets:
- Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 1.13%, Hang Seng down 0.85%, ASX up 1.49%
- Commodities : Gold at $1775.65 (+0.29%), Silver at $17.93 (+0.18%), Brent Oil at $41.08 (+0.07%), WTI Oil at $38.67 (-0.13%)
- Rates : US 10-year yield at 0.674, UK 10-year yield at 0.158, Germany 10-year yield at -0.473
News & Data:
- (USD) Unemployment Claims 1480K vs 1320K expected
- (USD) Final GDP q/q -5.00% vs -5.00% expected
- (USD) Durable Goods Orders m/m 15.80% vs 10.30% expected
- (USD) Core Durable Goods Orders m/m 4.00% vs 2.10% expected
- ECB’s Lagarde: Recovery Will Be A Complicated Matter
- Australian mining jobs stand at two-year low at end-May
Markets Update:
Asian stock markets are mostly higher on Friday following the positive cues overnight from Wall Street after U.S. regulators announced plans to ease regulations that will allow banks to invest in risky assets such as venture capital funds.
The news helped offset worries about the spiking coronavirus cases in a number of U.S. states. However, the Federal Reserve later ordered U.S. banks to cap dividend payments and suspend share buyback programs following the release of its annual stress test results.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index bucked the overall trend regionally as it slipped 0.9% as of its final hour of trading, with shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba dropping nearly 3%. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% as shares of conglomerate Softbank Group jumped 3 % while the Topix index added 1%. Meanwhile, shares in Australia advanced, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 1.5%
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 97.413 having traded at levels below 97 earlier in the trading week.
Oil prices, a barometer of energy consumption and so the global growth outlook, edged ahead to hold steady for the week.
Upcoming Events:
- 12:30 PM GMT – (USD) Core PCE Price Index m/m
- 12:30 PM GMT – (USD) Personal Spending m/m
- 02:00 PM GMT – (USD) Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment