Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.6% to 7,334.00
- Dow Average up 1.5% to 34,892.60
- Aussie up 0.5% to 0.7415 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield fell 2.5bps to 1.5107%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 0.2bps to 0.56%
- Australia 10-year bond yield fell 6bps to 1.63%
- Gold spot up 0.2% to $1,796.89
- Brent futures up 1.2% to $84.15/bbl
Economic Events
- 11am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$1 Billion 4.25% 2026 Bonds
The stock market had its best day since March as better-than-estimated corporate earnings and economic reports outweighed fears that inflation pressures and supply-chain snarls could crimp growth. Corporate profits have been a boon for the equity market throughout the pandemic. Since March 2020, the S&P 500 has risen each quarter, advancing 4% on average over the six-week stretch. Pent-up demand should drive revenue growth, while pricing power and operating leverage would help offset inflationary pressures, according to Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Other News
Prince Charles’ car is much like a fancy dinner party: it runs on wine and cheese. The Aston Martin gifted to him by Queen Elizabeth II on his 21st birthday uses a combination of English white wine and whey from cheese, the prince told the BBC in an interview Monday. The car, which Charles said he’s driven for more than 50 years, underwent a conversion in 2008 to change its fuel source to bioethanol made from wine and cheese. The prince asked Aston Martin himself to make the change, but the request was initially met with some skepticism, he said. “The engineers at Aston said, ‘Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing,’” Charles told The Telegraph in 2018. “I said, ‘Well I won’t drive it then,’ so they got on with it and now they admit that it runs better and is more powerful on that fuel than it is on petrol. “And also, it smells delicious as you’re driving along,” he added. The bioethanol that goes into the car is a renewable energy source created by fermenting the sugar and starch components of plant byproducts, which can be accomplished using wine and cheese, Euronews reported. Charles’ car was a brief talking point in a wide-ranging interview on Monday about the environment and climate change with the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt. The 72-year-old heir to the British throne said world leaders need to do more than “just talk” when they gather in Scotland’s biggest city, Glasgow, from the end of this month for a U.N. climate summit, known as COP26.
