Originally published by Rivkin Securities
Wall Street ended little changed on Friday and US bond yields fell sharply, dropping well below the 3% level for the 10-year security that worried investors early last week. Eurozone shares rose 0.3% on Friday and the US S&P 500 rose a tiny 0.1%. That was despite the record result from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) after hours on Thursday and good results fromExxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) on Friday.
Interim results from the ANZ (AX:ANZ) tomorrow and NAB (AX:NAB) on Thursday, and the annual from Macquarie (AX:MQG) (MQG) on Friday will drive much of the activity.
The US dollar continued its recovery and had its best week for three months, and this weighed on commodity prices and the Australian dollar, which ended at 75.81 US dollars and just off four-month lows earlier in the week. Commodities ended mixed to weaker thanks to a higher US dollar, an easing of tensions around the Korean Peninsula and a slide in auminium prices after the US weakened its latest sanctions against Russia.