Wall St has closed lower on Thursday as the 10-year treasury yield nears 5%. The Dow Jones lowered 0.75%, the S&P 500 fell 0.85% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended Thursday nearly 1 percent lower.
Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell described US inflation as “too high” and would likely require lower economic growth. As a result, investors have taken away that it is likely that the Fed would likely maintain interest rates at its next policy meeting.
The US 10-year treasury yield reached a peak of 4.996%, closing in on a 5% mark that hasn’t been hit since 2007.
Over in Europe, markets closed lower for a third consecutive day as investors react to the Hamas-Israel war, earnings and economic data. The STOXX600 ended Thursday down 1.16%, it’s lowest close since March 15. Germany’s Dax and French CAC closed 0.33% and 0.64% lower respectively, whilst over in the UK, the FTSE 100 ended the day 1.17% in the red.
Locally yesterday, the ASX 200 ended the day down 1.36% with all sectors finishing in the red. This was led by the information technology and consumer staples sectors which saw a 1.84% and 1.63% close in the red.
What to watch today:
- The Australian share market is set to open lower, with the SPI futures suggesting a fall of 0.64% at the open this morning.
- In terms of economic data,
- The Australian jobless rate was released yesterday, which saw it fall to 3.6%, a sign showing that the labour market remains tight.
- On the commodities front this morning,
- Oil is up 2.23% to 90 US dollars and 30 cents a barrel as concerns in the Middle East ramp up supply issues to major distributors.
- Gold is up 1.37% to 1974 US dollars an ounce as the escalation in the Middle Eastern war increases the demand for the precious metal as a safe-haven asset.
- And iron ore is down 2.05% to 119 US dollars and 50 cents a tonne, despite Rio Tinto signalling that it will attempt to increase iron ore mining to satisfy the demand growth in China.
Trading Ideas:
- Bell Potter maintains a buy rating on Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) and has maintained its price target of $14 with a current share price of $9.20. The buy rating is maintained as revenues are ahead of the forecast and reported revenues in the third quarter representing an 11% sequential quarter increase.
- And Trading Central has identified a bullish signal on Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN), indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $3.60 to the range of $4.10-$4.20 over a pattern formed in 5 days according to the standard principles of technical analysis.
