Originally published by Rivkin Securities
With US markets closed for the 4 July holiday, global markets were fairly quiet overnight. The major UK index, the FTSE 100, fell 0.3% while Germany’s DAX index also closed moderately lower. Trade concerns continue to be the main headlines moving markets with Trump’s aggressive trade policies scaring investors.
Gold prices have managed to move back above US$1,250 after falling as low as US$1,240 in recent days. A strengthening US dollar had been putting downward pressure on precious metals although this trend has stalled in the past few days. The US Dollar Index is nevertheless still near year-to-date highs at 94.54. This strength has kept the Australian dollar low, currently at US$0.738.
Yesterday Australia’s retail sales data for May came out better than expected with a 0.4% monthly increase. Furthermore, the prior month’s figure was revised up 0.1% to 0.5% making it a solid back-to-back monthly result for retail sales. Australia’s trade data was also released which showed a smaller surplus than expected and the prior month’s surplus was revised down quite substantially. The $0.83bn surplus was again driven by strong exports of Australia’s three main commodity exports, iron ore, coal and LNG.
Data Releases:
- US FOMC Meeting Minutes 4:00am AEST