Aussie shares bounced back yesterday. It was the strongest trading day in six months, a welcome return to form after some bruising sessions over the preceding four days.
That form looks set to continue today, with the market predicted to follow the US indices up. ASX futures were 35 points or 0.5% higher, to 7,096, early this morning.
US markets up, paced by energy
On Wall Street we saw the Dow add 0.9%, the Nasdaq edge higher by 0.6% and the S&P move up 0.7%, with the energy sector pacing all 11 S&P 500 industry sectors higher.
Shares in Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) jumped by 10% after a US judge ruled that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) may proceed with its planned acquisition of the videogame maker.
Salesforce shares were up 3.9% after the cloud services company announced it would raise prices of some of its cloud and marketing tools for the first time in seven years.
Shares in content repository company Shutterstock were riding high, up 9.1%, after it announced it was partnering with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for a six-year term.
The local currency edged modestly higher; the Bloomberg spot dollar index slipped 0.3%.
On bitstamp.net, bitcoin was 0.4% lower to $US30,555 this morning.
European sharemarkets were also buoyant, up for the third day in a row yesterday on the back of optimism about Chinese economic support.
But German economic sentiment was flatter than last month, the July figures for the ZEW economic sentiment index showed. The index fell from -8.5 in June to -14.7 in July.
The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 0.7% but in the UK the FTSE 100 index was flat, gaining only 0.1% as wages grew at a record annual rate of 7.3% in the three months to May compared to the same period a year ago and the Pound rallied.
US June inflation data is due today and is expected to show a slowdown in inflation, which will inform the next move of the Federal Reserve. Consumer confidence in that country appears to be flatlining as the ‘cost of living crisis’ takes hold.
Closer to home, economists are focused on a speech by RBA governor Philip Lowe and the latest rate decision of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. There’s also a rate decision pending in Canada.
Currencies and crude
Global currencies were flatter against the US dollar in overnight trade.
The Euro eased from US$1.1024 to US$1.0976 and was near US$1.1005 at the US close.
The Aussie dollar slipped from US66.93 cents to US66.50 cents and was near US66.85 cents at the close of play.
The Yen dipped from 140.15 yen in the greenback to JPY140.94 and was near JPY140.35 at the end of the trading day.
Global oil prices continued to rise, up by 2% yesterday as investors backed higher demand in the developing world and supply cuts by producers.
Brent crude was up by US$1.71 or 2.2% to US$79.40 a barrel, while US Nymex crude price gained US$1.84 or 2.5% to US$74.83 a barrel.
Commodities
Base metal prices were a mixed bag yesterday with aluminium futures up 0.6% on the back of stronger car sales in China and its government backing in the property market with relief measures for struggling developers.
On the other hand, copper futures were down by 0.5%.
Gold futures were up US$6.10 or 0.3% to US$1,937.10 an ounce, with spot gold trading near US$1,931 an ounce.
Iron ore futures rose by US13 cents or 0.1% to US$109.34 a tonne on Tuesday, again on the back of news out of China.
What’s happening in small caps?
The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries closed at 2,759.1 on Friday, down 1.67% from the previous day.
Making news this morning, which you can read more about throughout the day with Proactive are: