Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.8% to 7,259.00
  • Dow Average down 1.1% to 35,519.90
  • Aussie down 0.4% to 0.7187 per US$
  • U.S. 10-year yield rose 7.9bps to 1.8645%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield rose 5bps to 1.31%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield rose 3bps to 1.95%
  • Gold spot down 0.3% to $1,814.52
  • Brent futures up 1.7% to $87.95/bbl

Economic Events

  • 10:30am: (AU) Jan. Westpac Consumer Conf Index, prior 104.3
  • 10:30am: (AU) Jan. Westpac Consumer Conf SA MoM, prior -1.0%
  • 11am: (AU) Australia to Sell A$500 Million 2.75% 2035 Bonds

Stocks fell across the board and Treasury yieldssurged amid a ramp-up in speculation that central banks will have to boost interest rates sooner than earlier anticipated.

Treasuries fell along the curve, pushing yields up to levels last seen before the pandemic roiled markets and benchmark German yields rose to within one basis point of turning positive for the first time since May 2019. Focus is sharpening on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s March meeting, with markets starting to consider pricing more than a 25-basis-point increase.

Oil surged to the highest level in seven years, underscoring the inflation challenges facing the Fed. Meanwhile, a gauge of New York state manufacturing slumped in January as measures of orders and shipments retreated sharply, suggesting the omicron variant of the coronavirus caused a pullback in activity.

Other News

Scientists say that some people who catch Covid develop parosmia – a symptom where people experience strange and often unpleasant smell distortions.

Instead of smelling a lemon sufferers smell rotting cabbage, or chocolate may smell like petrol.

As many as 250,000 adults in the UK have suffered from the condition as a result of Covid infection.

And now smell experts say it could be turning children against their food, with many finding it difficult to eat anything at all.

Professor Carl Philpott, from the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School, joined up with charity Fifth Sense to release guidance and help parents and healthcare professionals better recognise the disorder.

Professor Philpott said: ‘Parosmia is thought to be a product of having less smell receptors working which leads to only being able to pick up some of the components of a smell mixture.