The ASX200 looks set to add 36 points or 0.45%, according to ASX Futures, building on yesterday’s momentum as the bourse attempts to recover some of the 1.37% lost over the last five days.
Gold has remained strong, flirting with all-time highs, and adding another 0.24% overnight to hit US$2,351 per ounce. Bitcoin took a similar path, gaining 3.3% to hit US$71,600 overnight, less than 3% from recent highs.
Oil drew back slightly overnight, with West Texas shedding 0.55% to US$86.43 during US trading.
Speaking of which, US markets had a mixed performance overnight and were very subdued.
Uncertainty over interest rate cuts continues to add turbulence to the indices – the S&P500 dipped marginally, down 0.04%, the Nasdaq flipped the other way with a 0.03% gain and the Dow Jones also shed 0.03%.
What happened overnight?
What’s moving markets? (Source:Commsec)
Investors were left without any clear direction in US markets overnight, with inflation data and first-quarter earnings yet to arrive and speculation over potential June rate cuts raging.
US Treasury yields hit their highest benchmark since November following a strong March jobs report, applying downward pressure.
There was a raft of share movements, however – Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gained 4.9% after Musk announced the Robotaxi would be unveiled on August 8, while General Electric (NYSE:GE) spin-off GE Vernova gained 5.9% on an upgrade to overweight from neutral from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM).
Lithium major SQM gained 4.6% following another analyst upgrade, this time Jefferies shifting from neutral to a buy recommendation.
On the other side of the ledger, Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) lost 7.6% after proposing to sell its voting stock and then merge with production company Skydance Media.
In Europe, strong industrial production data from Germany drove markets higher.
The EU’s largest economy enjoyed a 2.1% bump to production in February against a survey expectation of 0.5%, putting some wind in the EU’s sails.
Automobiles and industrial goods and services sectors gained 1.3% and 0.8% respectively, while basic resources also rose 2% after copper prices hit a 14-month high.
Online fashion retailer Zalando surged 7.4% following a Citigroup rating upgrade to buy from neutral.
The FTSE300 gained 0.4% while the UK-based FTSE100 mirrored it with another 0.4% lift.
Currencies and commodities
The US dollar faltered overnight.
The Euro rose from US$1.0820 to near US$1.0860 at the US close, the Aussie from US65.76 cents to near US66.00 cents, and the Japanese Yen from 151.92 yen per US dollar to near JPY151.85 at close.
Oil prices fell, as mentioned above, due to a reduction in Israeli troops in southern Gaza, which sparked a fresh round of ceasefire talks.
The Brent crude price fell by US79 cents or 0.9% to US$90.38 a barrel, and the US Nymex crude price dipped US48 cents or 0.6% to US$86.43 a barrel.
Copper’s 14-month high came from a 0.9% uptick sparked by strong German industrial data. Aluminium also gained 0.4%, while iron ore climbed US$2.71 or 2.7% to US$102.68 a tonne on fresh hopes for China’s steelmaking industry.
On the small cap front
The ASX Small Ordinaries gained 16.9 points or 0.55% yesterday, outpacing the ASX200’s 0.2% gains.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day on our website.