Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.2% to 7,442.00
- Dow Average down 0.4% to 34,496.51
- Aussie down 0.9% to 0.7511 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 4.1bps to 2.5881%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 8bps to 2.56%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 8bps to 2.93%
- Gold spot little changed at $1,925.12
- Brent futures down 4.7% to $101.66/bbl
Economic Events
- 10:30am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$1 Billion 126-Day Bills
- 10:30am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$1 Billion 91-Day Bills
- 11:30am: (AU) Feb. International Trade Balance, est. A$11.7b, prior A$12.9b
- 11:30am: (AU) Feb. Exports MoM, est. 0%, prior 8%
- 11:30am: (AU) Feb. Imports MoM, est. 2%, prior -2%
Stocks in Asia looked set to fall Thursday after the Federal Reserve outlined plans to pare its balance sheet by over $1 trillion a year while hiking interest rates in a push to curb elevated inflation.
Futures declined for Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, while those for the U.S. fluctuated. Technology was among the sectors the led a retreat on Wall Street, saddling the Nasdaq 100 index with its worst two-day loss in nearly a month.
Longer tenor Treasuries dropped but shorter maturities climbed, steepening the yield curve, and a gauge of the dollar advanced as investors digested the minutes of the Fed’s March meeting.
The minutes signaled half-point rate increases are under consideration and that the central bank will reduce its massive bond holdings at a maximum pace of $95 billion a month to tighten financial conditions.
Commodity markets continue to be whipsawed by disruptions sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine and efforts to curb raw-material costs. Oil was around its lowest price since mid-March after the International Energy Agency said it will deploy 60 million barrels from emergency stockpiles to bolster the historic release announced by the U.S.
Other News
A 60-year-old man allegedly had himself vaccinated against COVID-19 dozens of times in Germany in order to sell forged vaccination cards with real vaccine batch numbers to people not wanting to get vaccinated themselves.
The man from the eastern Germany city of Magdeburg, whose name was not released in line with German privacy rules, is said to have received up to 90 shots against COVID-19 at vaccination centers in the eastern state of Saxony for months until criminal police caught him earlier this month, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday.
The suspect was not detained but is under investigation for unauthorized issuance of vaccination cards and document forgery, dpa reported.
He was caught at a vaccination center in Eilenburg in Saxony when he showed up for a COVID-19 shot for the second day in a row. Police confiscated several blank vaccination cards from him and initiated criminal proceedings.
It was not immediately clear what kind of impact the approximately 90 shots of COVID-19 vaccines, which were from different brands, had on the man’s personal health.
German police have conducted many raids in connection with forgery of vaccination passports in recent months. Many COVID-19 deniers refuse to get vaccinated in Germany, but at the same want to have the coveted COVID-19 passports that make access to public life and many venues such as restaurants, theaters, swimming pools or work places much easier.
(AP News)
