Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures little changed at 7,230.00
  • Dow Average up 0.4% to 34,786.35
  • FTSE 100 little changed at 7,123.27
  • Euro up 0.1% to $1.1865
  • Aussie up 0.8% to 0.7527 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield fell 3.4bps to 1.4238%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield fell 2bps to 0.38%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield fell 4bps to 1.48%
  • Gold spot up 0.6% to $1,787.30
  • Brent futures up 0.4% to $76.17/bbl

Economic Events

  • 9am: (AU) June Markit Australia PMI Services, prior 56.0
  • 9am: (AU) June Markit Australia PMI Composite, prior 56.1
  • 11am: (AU) June Melbourne Institute Inflation, prior 3.3%
  • 11am: (AU) June Melbourne Institute Inflation, prior -0.2%
  • 11am: (NZ) June ANZ Commodity Price, prior 1.3%
  • 11:30am: (AU) June ANZ Job Advertisements MoM, prior 7.9%
  • 11:30am: (AU) May Building Approvals MoM, est. -5.0%, prior -8.6%
  • 11:30am: (AU) May Private Sector Houses MoM, prior 4.6%
  • 11:30am: (AU) May Retail Sales MoM, est. 0.1%, prior 0.1%

Other News

In order to move to backup gear, the space agency must first determine what is wrong. The Hubble Space Telescope went down on June 13 due to a problem with its payload computer, which controls the telescope’s scientific instruments. Since then, NASA has been conducting the kind of troubleshooting that many of us are used to, but with the extra strain that the hardware is irreplaceable, in space, and roughly the same age as a Commodore 64. So far, controllers have figured out various items that aren’t at fault based on failed patches. The workers have narrowed the problem down, but it has not been pinpointed. And, at this point, the next measures will be determined by the specific nature of the disease, therefore obtaining a diagnosis is the top priority. The problematic hardware is a component of the payload computer system, which includes a control processor, a communications bus, a memory module, and a processor that forms data and commands so that the controller can “talk” to all of the different research equipment (the system also converts the data that the instruments produce into a standard format for transmission to Earth).  There’s also a power supply to keep everything running at the right voltage. Hubble’s designers were cautious, so they included a backup controller and three backup memory modules. Because the initial indicators pointed to a possible problem with the memory module, the first attempt to restore the Hubble required switching to one of the backups. That patch failed, implying that the strange memory behavior was only a symptom of a larger problem. Switching to the backup controller also did not solve the problem; no matter which controller and memory module combination was utilized, Hubble could not read or write to the memory. Given this information, the controllers have shifted their focus elsewhere.