Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.2% to 7,371.00
- Dow Average down 0.2% to 34,393.75
- Aussie little changed at 0.7712 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 4.6bps to 1.4973%
- Australia 3-year bond yield little changed at 0.25%
- Australia 10-year bond yield little changed at 1.49%
- Gold spot down 0.6% to $1,865.74
- Brent futures up 0.5% to $73.07/bbl
Economic Events
- 11:30am: (AU) 1Q House Price Index YoY, est. 7.6%, prior 3.6%
- 11:30am: (AU) 1Q House Price Index QoQ, est. 5.0%, prior 3.0%
- 11:30am: (AU) RBA Minutes of June Policy Meeting
- 11:30am: (AU) RBA Minutes of June Policy Meeting
- Bitcoin continues to whipsaw investors; dollar little changed
- U.S. Treasury yields rebound after last week’s declines
Other News
An idea reached the World Health Organization earlier this year: How about naming new variants of the coronavirus after sing-songy North American birds? Repurposing the robin or quail as catchy labels for ungainly mutants would be less confusing for the public, an epidemiologist based in Switzerland had mused. That would appease politicians in member states like South Africa and India who were unhappy with the way ordinary people named new virus strains after the country where they were first discovered: “the South African variant,” “the Indian variant.” Feathers were ruffled. “It is almost inevitable that some will mistakenly think the birds carry or are responsible for Covid, putting robins and pelicans at risk the world over,” one commenter on a research paper protested.
