Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.4% to 7,384.00
- Dow Average little changed at 35,729.12
- Aussie up 0.8% to 0.7179 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 3.1bps to 1.5058%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 0.2bps to 0.96%
- Australia 10-year bond yield fell 3bps to 1.62%
- Gold spot little changed at $1,785.84
- Brent futures up 0.6% to $75.91/bbl
Economic Events
- 9:05am: (AU) RBA Governor Lowe speaks at Payments Summit
- 10:30am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$1 Billion 91-Day Bills
- 10:30am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$1 Billion 63-Day Bills
U.S. equities rose Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its biggest three-day rally in a year. Treasury yields advanced, with the 10 year rising to 1.51%. The dollar dipped and crude oil gained.
Other News
It’s finders, keepers for one lucky Alps trekker.
The mountain climber who discovered precious jewels on Mont Blanc will keep half the treasure, the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc council said Friday.
The unidentified mountaineer came upon nearly US$169,000 of emeralds and sapphires while climbing the French peak in 2013. The fortune had been on the mountain’s Bossons glacier since Jan. 24, 1966, when an Air India plane, en route to Mumbai, crashed into Mont Blanc, killing 117 and depositing debris across the Alps’ highest butte.
The fate of the prized cache has remained in limbo since its discovery eight years ago, as authorities sought the bounty’s original owners or their descendants, to no avail.
A spokesman for the council told CNN that each of the two gem hauls is estimated to be worth US$84,350.
The climber — who discovered the jewels in a metal box, where they’d remained for 50 years since the plane’s crash — is “very happy” with the council’s decision, the Guardian reported. Furthermore, he does not “regret having been honest” about his discovery and is content to take half the wealth, part of which he hopes to use to renovate his apartment, he told Le Parisien.
