Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.3% to 6,892.00
  • Dow Average up 0.8% to 34,991.31
  • Aussie up 1.2% to 0.7071 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield little changed at 1.7802%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield fell 10bps to 1.31%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield fell 5bps to 1.90%
  • Gold spot up 0.4% to $1,798.81
  • Brent futures up 1.3% to $91.21/bbl

Economic Events

  • 9am: (AU) Jan. Markit Australia PMI Mfg, prior 55.3
  • 9:30am: (AU) Jan. ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer, prior 100.1
  • 10am: (AU) Jan. CoreLogic House Px MoM, prior 0.6%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Dec. Investor Loan Value MoM, prior 3.8%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Dec. Owner-Occupier Loan Value MoM, est. 7.5%, prior 7.6%
  • 11:30am: (AU) 4Q Retail Sales Ex Inflation QoQ, est. 8.3%, prior -4.4%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Dec. Home Loans Value MoM, est. -0.4%, prior 6.3%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Dec. Retail Sales MoM, est. -2.0%, prior 7.3%
  • 2:30pm: (AU) Feb. RBA Cash Rate Target, est. 0.10%, prior 0.10%
  • 4:30pm: (AU) Jan. Commodity Index AUD, prior 135.7
  • 4:30pm: (AU) Jan. Commodity Index SDR YoY, prior 25.7%

Other News

The coldest air mass in several years is predicted to spread over Florida this weekend, with temperatures likely to dip into the 30s across much of the state. The cold will be drawn into the Sunshine State on the backside of the nor’easter plastering coastal areas in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Humans will shiver. Crops could frost. Iguanas may drop from trees.

″It is likely that these cold temperatures will stun and immobilize iguanas, causing them to lose their grip while sleeping from their usually safe perches in trees,” wrote James Stroud, a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, in an email.

The coldblooded animals can typically withstand temperatures down to 45 degrees. At lower temperatures, their bodies go dormant, although critical life functions continue operating. Florida’s cold snap in January 2020 stunned many iguanas in South Florida.

This weekend, the incoming cold front is forecast to bring temperatures as low as — or lower than — that iguana-dropping chill two years ago. In Miami, temperatures could drop below 40 degrees for the first time since 2010; that cold spell also was associated with a coastal blizzard.