Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 1.3% to 7,120.00
- Dow Average down 1.8% to 33,970.47
- Aussie down 0.2% to 0.7252 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield fell 5.3bps to 1.3107%
- Australia 3-year bond yield fell 0.2bps to 0.24%
- Australia 10-year bond yield little changed at 1.30%
- Gold spot up 0.6% to $1,765.36
- Brent futures down 1.4% to $74.29/bbl
Economic Events
- 9:30am: (AU) Sept. ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer, prior 103.1
- 11:30am: (AU) RBA Minutes of Sep. Policy Meeting
U.S. stocks fell the most in about four months amid a global rout sparked by investor angst over China’s real-estate sector and Federal Reserve tapering.
The S&P 500 pared losses in the last hour of trading to 1.7% as traders emerged to buy the dip again after the benchmark bounced off closely watched moving averages. The index was down as much as 2.9% at one point, the the biggest slide since October 2020. Treasuries gained along with the dollar before Wednesday’s Fed meeting, where policy makers are expected to start laying the groundwork for paring stimulus. Hong Kong shares slumped amid the biggest selloff in property stocks in more than a year as traders tracked the risk of contagion from the debt crisis at developer China Evergrande Group, which is fueling new fears about China’s growth path. Aside from Evergrande and the prospect of reduced Fed stimulus, financial markets also face risks from uncertainty over the outlook for President Joe Biden’s $4 trillion economic agenda as well as the need to raise or suspend the U.S. debt ceiling. Investors were already fretting over a slowing global recovery from the pandemic and inflation stoked by commodity prices.
Other News
In the lab, robots are engineered for mind-blowing displays of perception and agility, like Boston Dynamics’ parkour performing bot and the humanoid shooting hoops at the Olympics.
But in the home, this technology is now deployed for the mundane task of spotting dog poop — a feature with expansive potential privacy costs.
“Roomba j7+,” the latest version of iRobot’s popular home vacuum, claims to give customers “even more control over their clean,” with a camera that can identify and avoid pet droppings. Instead of smearing it all over the floor, the device will gracefully avoid the poop and even snap a picture and text it to your phone if you’re out, the company says.
The $849 vacuum, released last week, relies on an artificial intelligence-boosted brain and camera system to identify objects on the floor in real-time. It’s designed to be a “thoughtful, collaborative cleaning partner” suited for people who want tech to serve them better, iRobot says in a news release. For the company that pioneered robot vacuums, it represents a significant upgrade.
