Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures down 2.7% to 6,629.00
  • Dow Average down 2.8% to 30,516.74
  • Aussie down 1.9% to 0.6922 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield rose 22.4bps to 3.3809%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield little changed at 3.12%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield little changed at 3.67%
  • Gold spot down 2.7% to $1,820.97
  • Brent futures up 0.1% to $122.14/bbl

Economic Events

  • 9am: (AU) May CBA Household Spending YoY, prior 5.0%
  • 9am: (AU) May CBA Household Spending MoM, prior -3.8%
  • 11am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$100 Million 2.5% 2030 Bonds
  • 11:30am: (AU) May NAB Business Confidence, prior 10
  • 11:30am: (AU) May NAB Business Conditions, prior 20

Stocks face more losses after global shares sank into a bear market amid a surge in Treasury yields and the dollar on growing expectations of sharper Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes to get inflation under control. Treasuries tumbled — taking the US 10-year rate to the highest since 2011 — while another part of the yield curve inverted. The inversion flags worries about a looming economic downturn sparked by tighter monetary policy.

The dollar reached a two-year high and the yen was around a 24-year low.

Other News

Russian President Vladimir Putin is accompanied by a “special” bodyguard who collects his faeces when he has to go during international tours.

While their primary duty is still keeping him out of harm’s way, foreign trips necessitate a job number two – collecting the 69-year-old’s excreta and sending it back to Russia.

The wild—if not stinking—revelation came in an investigative report Thursday for French news magazine Paris Match by Russian journalists Regis Gente, author of two books about the Motherland and Mikhail Rubin, who has covered Russian policy for 13 years.

The report suggests that Federal Protective Service agents are responsible for collecting Putin’s poop in a specialised bag so it can be returned to Russia in a dedicated briefcase.

It appears the agency is pulling out all stops to ensure that information about Putin’s health remains undiscovered by other countries or for predicting any future conditions through his DNA.