Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.2% to 7,189.00
- Dow Average down 0.4% to 34,283.27
- Aussie down 0.3% to 0.7565 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield fell 4.6bps to 1.4782%
- Australia 3-year bond yield fell 3bps to 0.43%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 2bps to 1.58%
- Gold spot down 0.1% to $1,779.48
- Brent futures down 2.0% to $74.64/bbl
Economic Events
- 9:30am: (AU) June ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer, prior 112.4
Asian stocks look set for a mixed start after the reflation trade fizzled in the U.S. amid new travel curbs in some parts of the world. Treasuries climbed with the dollar.
Futures pointed lower in Japan and Australia, and up in Hong Kong. U.S. futures dipped at the open. Technology stocks led U.S. benchmarks to fresh records Monday as the likes of Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. climbed. But cruise operators and airlines sank as governments from Europe to Asia imposed new limits on travel from Britain — which is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases. The S&P 500 eked out a gain on news that Facebook Inc. won dismissal of two monopoly lawsuits.
The Treasury yield curve flattened amid month-end index rebalancing and the break in auctions until July 12, reducing supply. Oil extended a drop with the market expecting OPEC+ producers to increase supply at an upcoming meeting. Bitcoin was steady around mid-$34,000.
Other News
The U.S. government wants to take reports of unidentified flying objects more seriously based on unexplained sightings reported by military pilots over the years, according to a new intelligence report that made no mention of theories that aliens may be visiting.
The Director of National Intelligence said in the findings released Friday that pilots will be encouraged to report “unexplained aerial phenomena” — the government’s preferred term for UFO sightings — in an effort to collect additional data. That’s a change from the government’s previous stance, which often involved ignoring or downplaying the phenomena.
But the nine-page report cites “the limited amount of high-quality reporting on unidentified aerial phenomena” which “hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions.” The word “alien” doesn’t appear in the document.
The report calls for an effort to “standardize the reporting, consolidate the data and deepen the analysis” of UAP occurrences, saying reported events probably fall into a swath of categories. That includes airborne clutter, like birds and balloons, natural atmospheric phenomena and even “foreign adversary systems.”
In a move that will surely be noted by believers in alien life and conspiracy theorists, there’s a final “other” category for events that the report describes as a “catch-all” for unexplained events.
