Friday night saw some soft-ish comments from Fed Chair Powell force bond yields and the USD lower, giving Wall Street a bump up higher instead. The latest ISM manufacturing survey was also softer than expected and remains in contraction mode. The Australian dollar burst out to a new five month high, pushing well above the 66 cent level while Euro fell again on ECB disinflation comments for a new weekly low.
US bond markets saw drops across the curve with 10 year Treasury yields back below the 4.2% level while oil prices remain volatile in the wake of the latest OPEC meeting with Brent crude pushed back below the $79USD per barrel level. Gold can’t be contained with a surge through the $2070USD per ounce level to match its historic highs.
Looking at share markets in Asia from Friday’s session where mainland Chinese share markets manged to get just back in the green near the close with the Shanghai Composite up 0.1% to 3031 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index was off smartly, down nearly 1.2% to continue its losing streak, closing at 16830 points.