Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures little changed at 7,255.00
  • Dow Average down 0.3% to 34,888.79
  • Aussie down 0.4% to 0.7445 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield rose 5.1bps to 1.4166%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield fell 0.7bps to 0.30%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield rose 1bp to 1.33%
  • Gold spot little changed at $1,807.60
  • Brent futures up 1.8% to $76.49/bbl

Economic Events

  • 10:30am: (AU) July Westpac Consumer Conf SA MoM, prior -5.2%
  • 10:30am: (AU) July Westpac Consumer Conf Index, prior 107.2
  • 12pm: (AU) Australia to Sell A$800 Million 1.25% 2032 Bonds

Asian stocks are set for a mixed start after Wall Street fell from a record and bond yields rose following a surprise U.S. inflation jump that stirred the debate on how long Federal Reserve policy can stay ultra-loose.
Futures slipped in Japan and Hong Kong Wednesday and were little changed in Australia. The S&P 500 slipped for the first time in three trading sessions as traders digested a release showing the highest inflation since 2008 as well as mixed earnings reports from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Tech shares were relatively resilient and the Nasdaq 100 little changed.

Other News

The 190 passengers of American Airlines’ Flight 1774 boarded the plane last week in an orderly manner and took their seats for an approximately two-hour ride from Dallas-Fort Worth to Charlotte.
Elizabeth LaClair was sitting in Row 2 when she heard a woman sitting behind her say to the man next to her that she did not want the plane “to fly up anymore,” becoming increasingly unsettled.
“She just seemed off and very odd,” said LaClair, who was flying back home to Augusta, Ga., after hiking in Utah.
“She started getting more and more agitated and very loud, and the man sitting next to her, along with the flight attendants, kindly tried to console her and calm her, but nothing worked,” LaClair added.
Suddenly, the woman who appeared to be in her 30s and had green hair, ran to the door and tried to open it, LaClair said.
Flight attendants ran and “tackled” the woman, then restrained her wrists and feet with duct tape and what appeared to be zip ties, LaClair added.
“It was the look of pure shock of someone who has been a flight attendant for many years and is thinking, I can’t believe this is happening,” she said.
After being partially restrained in a crew area, LaClair said, the woman seemed to become more erratic and violent by the minute, kicking and screaming expletives, causing “a ruckus.”
That is when the flight attendants asked passengers in the rows ahead of and behind the woman to stand up so employees could subdue her and duct-tape her to the seat.
American Airlines confirmed the incident in a statement sent to The Washington Post on Sunday, saying that as the commotion developed, the crew reported a “potential security concern” after the woman tried to open a boarding door and “physically assaulted and bit a flight attendant.”