Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.3% to 7,396.00
- Dow Average down 0.5% to 33,763.91
- Aussie up 0.2% to 0.6941 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 6.9bps to 3.6826%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 6.7 bps to 3.34%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 5.5 bps to 3.67%
- Gold spot down 0.7% to $1,861.85
- Brent futures down 1.1% to $84.16/bbl
Economic Events
- 11:00: (AU) Australia to Sell A$500 Million 2.25% 2028 Bonds
- 11:30: (AU) RBA-Statement on Monetary Policy
Wall Street couldn’t find many reasons to keep lifting stocks amid higher bond yields, hawkish Fedspeak and a surge in equity bullishness among retail investors that’s often seen as a contrarian indicator.
The S&P 500 finished lower after wiping out a rally of almost 1%. Options traders continued piling into bets targeting a 6% Federal Reserve peak rate, nearly a percentage point higher than consensus. The two-year note’s yield hit 4.5%, and earlier pushed above the 10-year rate by the widest margin since the early 1980s — a sign of flagging confidence in the economy’s ability to withstand additional tightening.
Adding to the drumbeat of officials signaling the central bank has a ways to go to curb prices, Fed Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said it’s important to continue hiking to rein in inflation. Data on jobless claims reinforced the idea of a hot labor market that points to tight policy, while mortgage rates rose for the first time in more than a month.
Other News
An Italian fugitive and convicted murderer suspected of belonging to the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate, one of Italy’s most powerful organized crime groups, was busted this week after more than 16 years on the run, including years spent working at a pizza restaurant in France, the Interpol international police agency said.
Edgardo Greco, 63, a fugitive of the Italian state, was arrested Thursday in the city of Saint-Etienne after coordinated efforts by Italian and French authorities, according to Interpol. Greco was handed a life prison sentence in absentia in Italy on charges including a double-homicide and attempted murder during a “mafia war” in the early 1990s.
Greco escaped from temporary police custody in 2006 after an arrest warrant was issued following the killing of brothers Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, who were beaten to death at a fish market in the town of Cosenza in January 1991, and whose bodies were believed to have been dissolved in acid, according to Italy’s national Carabinieri police force.
Allegedly a member of the Perna-Pranno gang, the Italian outlaw was “untraceable” for years, the Carabinieri said, during which time he took up residence in the town near Lyon, France, where he eventually opened his own pizza parlor.
Operating under the alias of Paolo Dimitrio, Greco was featured in a local newspaper in 2021, advertising the restaurant’s authentic Italian cuisine; “I only want to offer regional and homemade recipes,” he told Le Progres at the time.
Following his early morning arrest this week, a magistrate in Lyon formally notified Greco of Italy’s arrest warrant before placing him in detention.
Considered Italy’s most extensive and powerful mafia group, the ‘Ndragheta syndicate, based in the southern Calabria region, is believed to have operations on every continent, with strong ties to the cocaine trade between South America and Europe.
Greco is the second mafia-linked fugitive to make headlines this month, following the high-profile arrest of most-wanted mob chief Matteo Messina Denaro, who was apprehended at a private Sicilian clinic after a 30-year manhunt. His alleged co-conspirator and the man whose identity Denaro assumed, Andrea Bonafede, was arrested shortly thereafter.
(CBS News)
