Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.3% to 7,342.00
- Aussie little changed at 0.7210 per US$
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 6bps to 1.27%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 7bps to 1.92%
- Gold spot little changed at $1,819.33
- Brent futures up 0.6% to $86.56/bbl
Economic Events
Stocks were mixed Monday as traders weighed a global advance in sovereign bond yields and corporate developments.
Bond yields rose around the world after U.S. Treasuries tumbled Friday on concerns about more hawkish Federal Reserve policy to fight inflation. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said Friday the central bank could raise rates as many as seven times and traders are reconsidering an earlier kickoff for the first European Central Bank rate increase in more than a decade.
The advance of the omicron virus strain, the start of the earnings season and a boom in mergers and acquisitions are also coloring sentiment. Investors are looking for signs that companies can sustain profit growth despite rising risks from inflation, rates, supply chain bottlenecks and slowing economic growth following last year’s blockbuster earnings.
Other News
A British-born former DJ is set to become Jamaica’s first Alpine skier at the Winter Olympics, just six years after he first took up the sport.
Benjamin Alexander, 38, whose father is Jamaican, will be the sole member of Jamaica’s national ski team at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing next month.
Alexander, who was raised in Wellingborough, near Northampton, will compete in the giant slalom event after finishing seventh in the discipline at the Cape Verde National Ski Championships in Liechtenstein earlier this week.
The athlete, who became an internationally renowned DJ who played at major festivals such as Burning Man in the US, only began skiing in 2015 while on holiday in Canada and has no full-time coach.
Alexander, who will be the 15th athlete to compete for Jamaica at the Winter Olympics, readily admits that he stands little chance against the sports elites – many of whom have been skiing since they were toddlers and have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into their careers over the years.
Instead, he hopes his improbable run inspires others, especially those from smaller countries and tropical climates, to chase any alpine dreams they are brave enough to nourish.
Alexander counts Dudley Stokes, the pilot of the Jamaican bobsleigh team who competed in the 1988 Olympics, as one of his mentors who keeps in touch with every day.
