Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.7% to 7,225.00
  • Dow Average up 1.0% to 34,196.82
  • FTSE 100 up 0.5% to 7,109.97
  • Euro little changed at $1.1932
  • Aussie up 0.1% to 0.7586 per US$
  • Kiwi up 0.2% to 0.7064 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield little changed at 1.4919%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield fell 0.8bps to 0.43%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield rose 0.5bps to 1.57%
  • Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,775.13
  • Brent futures up 0.5% to $75.60/bbl

Economic Events

Asian stocks look set to climb Friday after U.S. shares hit a record on a bipartisan $579 billion U.S. infrastructure deal that stoked economic optimism. The dollar held a retreat.
Futures advanced in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. U.S. contracts were little changed after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 reached new peaks, with sectors seen as beneficiaries of the recovery from the pandemic, such as energy, leading gainers. U.S. banks rose in postmarket trading after clearing stress tests. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was little changed after climbing over the week. Investors took the latest comments from Federal Reserve officials in their stride, after the central bank reassured on supportive policy while signaling that exceptional stimulus is set to be trimmed gradually.

Other News

Work from home has become the norm amid the coronavirus pandemic. While many people are waiting to go back to their offices, some are enjoying the work-from-home model. A US-based CCTV company is offering a job that involves keeping an eye on others on video and yell at them. Washington-based Live Eye Surveillance has a surveillance camera system that monitors shops and lets a remote human operator intervene whenever they see something they deem suspicious. In one of the promotional videos, Live Eye sends potential customers, two black-clad robbers, into what appears to be a 7-Eleven store. One of them is carrying an assault rifle. When the clerk starts to open the cash register, the Live Eye system dings and a voice informs the robbers that the police have been called. They run out of the store. Live Eye mentions on its website that its mission is “to reduce the risk of business operations with the need to protect the employee and company assets.” The company claims several major corporations as customers, including 7-Eleven, Shell, Dairy Queen, and Holiday Inn.