Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.4% to 7,213.00
- Dow Average up 0.4% to 35,184.29
- Aussie up 0.4% to 0.7243 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield fell 3.3bps to 1.8326%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 4bps to 1.39%
- Australia 10-year bond yield fell 0.6bps to 1.99%
- Gold spot little changed at $1,840.06
- Brent futures down 0.3% to $88.19/bbl
Economic Events
- 11am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$1.5 Billion 3.25% 2025 Bonds
U.S. stocks ticked lower in the afternoon session, mirroring late-day moves this week as investors cut holdings in riskier assets. Treasuries gained across the curve.
Stocks are looking to bounce back in a volatile month of trading that’s seen the S&P 500 fall through a key technical support level and sent the Nasdaq Composite down more than 10% from a November high into correction territory. Finding a bottom for markets may take some time, with rate hikes signaled by policy makers over recent weeks and the possible reduction of Fed holdings in Treasuries threatening to inject more instability across a range of assets.
Data showed U.S. jobless claims climbed last week to a three-month high, suggesting that the omicron variant could be having a bigger impact on the labor market.
Other News
Nineteen-year-old Zara Rutherford became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world, arriving back in Belgium on Thursday after an odyssey spanning 52 countries and five continents.
The Belgian-British teenager touched down at Kortrijk-Wevelgem airfield – the final stop in a expedition that kicked off in August and lasted 156 days – greeted by her family, fans and crowds of reporters.
Within hours, Guinness World Records confirmed that Rutherford was indeed the youngest woman to complete the feat, and also the youngest person of any gender to circumnavigate solo in a microlight airplane.
Her personal highlights? Siberia, even though it was in her words, the “hardest past.” “Taiwan, I remember, was gorgeous. And reaching Bulgaria,” she told journalists.
Rutherford beat previous record-holder Shaesta Waiz of the United States, who flew around the planet alone at the age of 30 in 2017. The male record-holder was 18 years old.
The young pilot has been touting her epic journey on social media, hoping to get more women and girls interested in flying, or science and engineering more broadly.
Rutherford flew an ultralight aircraft made in Europe called a “Shark,” capable of cruising at 300 kilometres per hour, her site states.
The teenager comes from a family of aviators: Both her Belgian mother and her English father are pilots.
She knew first-hand what the inside of a cockpit looked like when she was just a few months old. At 14, she learned how to steer a plane and soon starting working towards her first pilot’s licence.
