Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.7% to 7,289.00
  • Dow Average down 0.7% to 35,961.12
  • Aussie down 0.2% to 0.7166 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield rose 1.2bps to 1.7745%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield rose 2bps to 1.20%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield rose 6bps to 1.92%
  • Gold spot up 0.3% to $1,801.08
  • Brent futures down 1.3% to $80.67/bbl

Economic Events

  • 9:30am: (AU) Jan. ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer, prior 108.4
  • 11:30am: (AU) Nov. Exports MoM, prior -3%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Nov. Imports MoM, prior -3%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Nov. International Trade Balance, est. A$10.6b, prior A$11.2b
  • 11:30am: (AU) Nov. Retail Sales MoM, est. 3.6%, prior 4.9%

Stocks pared losses that topped 2% as dip buyers emerged to blunt a five-day selloff — the longest losing streak since September.

The Fed will likely raise rates four times this year and will start its balance-sheet runoff process in July, if not earlier, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. A key measure of U.S. inflation — set to be released Wednesday — is anticipated to have increased further in December, putting additional pressure on the central bank to tighten policy.

Other News

A blurry image that China’s space program had called the “mystery hut” was a result of camera angle, light and shadow.

Last November, China’s Yutu-2 lunar rover spotted something curious on the far side of the moon. The image was blurry, but it was unmistakable: The object looked like a cube sitting on the moon’s surface. Its shape looked too precise to be just a moon rock — perhaps something left by visiting aliens like the monolith in Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

China’s space authorities called it the “mystery hut.” Others called it the “moon cube.” Yutu-2 was sent for a closer look, and at the leisurely speed the rover is capable of traveling, it took weeks to get up close.

On Friday, Our Space, a Chinese language science channel affiliated with China National Space Administration, posted an update. There is no monolith, no secret base on the rim of a lunar crater. Close up, it turns out to be just a rock. The seemingly perfect geometric shape was just a trick of angle, light and shadow.