Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures up 1.3% to 7,245.00
  • Dow Average up 1.8% to 33,876.97
  • FTSE 100 up 0.6% to 7,062.29
  • Euro up 0.4% to $1.1916
  • Aussie up 0.8% to 0.7541 per US$
  • Kiwi up 0.7% to 0.6988 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield rose 5.1bps to 1.4903%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield rose 3bps to 0.46%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield fell 8bps to 1.52%
  • Gold spot up 1.1% to $1,783.21
  • Brent futures up 1.9% to $74.89/bbl

Economic Events

Asian stocks Tuesday are set to track a U.S. equity rebound as the prospect of very gradual policy tightening tempers some of the concerns about the Federal Reserve’s hawkish tilt. Treasuries and the dollar retreated.
Futures rose in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. The S&P 500 rallied the most in five weeks, outperforming the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100, aided by a revival of the value trade in sectors like energy and financials. U.S. equity contracts were steady in early trading. Yields on longer-dated Treasuries rebounded in the U.S. session Monday, even as short-end rates remained firmly anchored. That undid some of the curve-flattening that swept across markets after Fed officials last week accelerated their expected pace of policy tightening.

Other News

An autonomous drone may have hunted down and attacked humans without input from human commanders, a recent UN report has revealed. As well as being the first time such an attack by artificial intelligence (AI) has taken place on humans, it’s unclear whether the drone may have killed people during the attack which took place in Libya in March 2020. The report to the UN Security Council states that on March 27, 2020, Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj ordered “Operation PEACE STORM”, which saw unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) used against Haftar Affiliated Forces. Drones have been used in combat for years, but what made this attack different is that they operated without human input, after the initial attack with other support had taken place. The KARGU is a rotary-wing attack drone designed for asymmetric warfare or anti-terrorist operations, which according to the manufacturers “can be effectively used against static or moving targets through its indigenous and real-time image processing capabilities and machine learning algorithms embedded on the platform.” A video showcasing the drone shows it targeting mannequins in a field, before diving at them and detonating an explosive charge.