Australian Shares

Another solid session across Asian stock markets today to finish the week, as traders absorbed last nights early NFP print due to the long weekend on US markets.

The Australian dollar is soft this morning: Bonds are bid: The XJO breaks above 6000 has anew high in it’s sights: Big Iron is soft: Big Gas lagging oil: Big Gold is now outdoing the currency: Big Banks are surging on earnings upgrades as economic outcomes appear better than feared.

US payrolls surprised well and truly to the upside in June, although the BLS does not seem to have fixed undercounting issues with furloughed workers.

By Chris Becker  The short week for US markets meant the early release of the June non farm payrolls (US unemployment) numbers overnight, which surprised to the upside, but didn’t give a huge boost to Wall Street as expected, although the bubblicious NASDAQ made another new record high.

A more solid session across Asian stocks today, as traders await for tonight’s early NFP print due to the long weekend on US markets.

By Chris Becker  Wall Street continued to rise overnight, with the NASDAQ to an all time high while the release of the FOMC minutes had little impact, with markets focusing more positively on latest ISM manufacturing print.

A mixed session across Asia, echoing a similar mood in Europe and Wall Street overnight with Japanese stocks falling on reaction to a poor consumer confidence print and the possibility of more lockdowns due to a local uptick in coronavirus cases.

Via Tony Pasquariello, global head of HF Sales at Goldman Sachs The dominant narrative of the week was a return to trading COVID headlines, as the worst period for US case growth since April served as disruption for those expecting business-as-usual trading conditions this summer.

The Australian dollar is still trying to push higher this morning.

By Chris Becker  Wall Street continued its rebound overnight, with the NASDAQ nearly back to an all time high and the best quarter recorded in over 20 years.

Wall Street’s rebound overnight translated into similar gains here in Asia as we close out the month/quarter/financial year.

By Chris Becker  Wall Street rebounded overnight, spurned on by a surge in home sales and the usual quarter/end year rebalancing meme.

Wall Street’s slump on Friday has survived through the weekend to start the week here in Asia with a similar selloff, with most stock markets down 1-2% across the region.

Via ZeroHedge: After three months of relentless contrarian bearishness by institutional investors, even as retail investors first, and hedge funds subsequently (latest HF net leverage is 99%-ile) flooded into stocks, large institutions such as vanilla mutual funds and pensions finally capitulated to the Fed which is now openly pushing stock prices higher.

By Chris Becker  Wall Street stumbled on Friday night with yet another reversal in sentiment as the US failed response to the coronavirus with yet another record high number of cases has seen many States begin to again restrict economic activity.

Following the bounce on Wall Street overnight, Asian stocks came back to end the trading week with relatively strong sessions.

Via Bloomie: An Australian equities fund manager is wagering that stocks linked to the domestic economy will become the biggest winners as coronavirus measures ease.

By Chris Becker  The plunge protection team stepped up to the plate again last night on Wall Street as a stunningly bad weekly jobless claim print and another record high number of new COVID-19 cases in the US  wasn’t real enough for shares to selloff.

Following the rout on Wall Street overnight, Asian stocks took a tumble today, not helped by Chinese stocks taking the day off with both European and S&P futures in the red as traders go defensive before the amateurs start selling off.

The polls have swung: The approval rating is shocking: Betting markets have spoken: And the virus is giving the marching orders: All seems a bit too early for such strident conclusions but Trump is certainly in a lot of trouble.

By Chris Becker  Exuberance turned to fear overnight, and depending on what side of reality you listen to it was either Biden’s fault for leading in the US presidential polls (which means 2/5ths of SFA) or the growing 2nd wave that’s actually the unfinished 1st wave of the coronavirus.

Bit of a nothing session here for stocks in Asia today with only mainland Chinese and their satellite Australian bourses rising while the rest of the region puts in scratch sessions.

AUD is pushing higher today: Bonds are range trading: XJO is stalled despite strong offshore leads: Big Iron is up: Big Gas is down: Big Gold is off and running finally.

By Chris Becker  Exuberance is exceeding expectations across the risk complex as a swathe of economic activity data overnight pointing to a turnaround in nearly virus free Europe excited stock markets and other risk assets the world over, with tech stocks leading the orgy of buying.