Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.6% to 7,434.00
  • Dow Average down 1.4% to 34,737.01
  • Aussie down 0.3% to 0.7483 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield fell 2.2bps to 2.3288%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield fell 1bp to 2.34%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield rose 5bps to 2.84%
  • Gold spot up 0.2% to $1,936.85
  • Brent futures down 4.9% to $107.91/bbl

Economic Events

  • 9am: (AU) March S&P Global Australia PMI Mfg, prior 57.3
  • 10am: (AU) March CoreLogic House Px MoM, prior 0.3%
  • 11am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$300 Million 1.75% 2051 Bonds
  • 11:30am: (AU) Feb. Investor Loan Value MoM, est. 5.5%, prior 6.1%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Feb. Home Loans Value MoM, est. 1.5%, prior 2.6%
  • 11:30am: (AU) Feb. Owner-Occupier Loan Value MoM, est. 1.0%, prior 1.0%
  • 4:30pm: (AU) March Commodity Index AUD, prior 137.2
  • 4:30pm: (AU) March Commodity Index SDR YoY, prior 16.7%

U.S. stocks tumbled into the close, wrapping up their first losing quarter since the pandemic bear market, as Treasuries also pared the worst losses in at least five decades.

Moves in most financial markets were muted on the final day of a quarter that brought the twin threats of hawkish central banks bent on tamping down runaway inflation and the war in Ukraine. The S&P 500 declined, taking its loss in the three months to nearly 5%, the most since March 2020. The two-year Treasury yield gained after a 150 basis-point surge that’s the most since 1984. Ten-year rates slipped, narrowing the spread to shorter tenors, as investors remain on edge over the threat a restrictive Federal Reserve will cause a recession. And oil slumped, but held just above $100 a barrel in New York.

Other News

A Turkish prosecutor is pursuing jail sentences totaling thousands of years for founders and executives of the Thodex cryptocurrency exchange, a year after it halted trading and its chief executive disappeared.

The indictment on Istanbul-based Thodex seeks sentences of up to 40,564 years for each of the 21 defendants, Demiroren News Agency reported Thursday.

They include the 28-year-old CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer, who has been missing for the past year. After footage of Ozer at Istanbul airport emerged in April 2021, Turkish police teams have flown to four countries including Albania in failed attempts to locate him. Ozer remains wanted with a red notice, according to the Interpol website.

Thodex was part of the cryptocurrency boom that drew in legions of Turks seeking to protect their savings from rampant inflation and an unstable currency. In a statement from an unknown location in April 2021, Ozer promised to repay investors and to return to Turkey to face justice at a later date.

The indictment says total losses due to the collapse of the exchange amounted to 356 million liras ($24 million), a figure far below the $2.6 billion estimated in a February report by Chainalysis. It said Thodex was responsible for about 90% of the total value lost globally to so-called rug pulls in 2021.

The defendants are accused of establishing a criminal organization, fraud through informatics systems and laundering proceeds from criminal activity, according to the Demiroren report.