Originally published by Rivkin Securities
The rout in stocks continued overnight with the Dow Jones falling another 2%. It was a similar story for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100. Oil prices were also hammered with WTI oil declining to US$46.43. The declines over the past few weeks have hit the US energy sector hard. Many of the so-called FANG stocks (Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)) have also suffered significant declines recently with Amazon and Netflix both declining over 2% last night.
Gold significantly outperformed overnight, rising around US$20, although the only obvious catalyst was a falling US dollar. This move may be a delayed reaction to the dialling back of future rate hike expectations despite the fact the market was hoping for an even more dovish Federal Reserve statement yesterday. The Australian dollar has been weak over the past month which has pushed the Australian dollar gold price very close to a new all-time record high. Gold is currently priced at AU$1,771 per ounce.
Australian employment data came out yesterday with the unemployment rate ticking up by 0.1% to 5.1%. This was primarily caused by an increase in the labour participation rate which implies that more people started looking for work. The headline jobs number was higher than expected at 37,000 jobs created although all of these were part-time. The number of full-time jobs actually declined.
Tonight, the final estimate for US third quarter GDP will be released. Expectations are for no change to the current figure of 3.5%.
Data Releases:
- US Final 3rd Quarter GDP 11:30pm AEDT