Markets Overview

  • ASX SPI 200 futures up 0.5% to 8,425.00
  • Dow Average up 0.1% to 44,786.61
  • Aussie down 0.7% to 0.6461 per US$
  • US 10-year yield rose 2.7bps to 4.3004%
  • Australia 3-year bond yield fell 4.6 bps to 3.99%
  • Australia 10-year bond yield fell 3.9 bps to 4.45%
  • Gold spot up 0.1% to $2,628.57
  • Brent futures down 0.4% to $72.71/bbl

Economic Events

  • 11:00: (AU) Australia to Sell A$800 Million 3.5% 2034 Bonds
  • 11:30: (AU) Oct. CPI Trimmed Mean YoY, prior 3.2%
  • 11:30: (AU) 3Q Construction Work Done, est. 0.4%, prior 0.1%
  • 11:30: (AU) Oct. CPI YoY, est. 2.3%, prior 2.1%

Stocks closed at all-time highs as investors looked past Donald Trump’s tariff plan, with geopolitical risks abating after Israel and Hezbollah reached a cease-fire agreement.

Equities extended gains into a seventh straight session, with the S&P 500 notching its 52nd record this year. Shortly after oil futures settled, the US said Israel and the Lebanese militant group had reached a deal. In late hours, Dell Technologies Inc. reported worse-than-expected sales, while HP Inc. and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. gave lackluster outlooks.

Wall Street shrugged off Trump’s plan to impose additional tariffs on the US’s top trading partners. Microsoft Corp. drove software companies higher amid the group’s lower susceptibility to tariff risks. While automakers like General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. were hit by Trump’s plan due to their exposure to Mexico and China, a slide in equity volatility showed calm prevailed.

“We still see tariffs as more strategizing and think the bark will be worse than the bite,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%.

US 10-year yields advanced two basis points to 4.30%. A dollar gauge gained 0.2%. The Mexican peso and Canadian dollar slid.

To Dennis DeBusschere at 22V Research, Trump linking tariffs to drugs and immigration, rather than trade policy and economics signaled to investors that this announcement is a negotiating tactic, not a policy tool.

“It was Trump ‘following through’ on his campaign promises – nothing more, nothing less – and my sense is that investors welcomed the move,” said Kenny Polcari at SlateStone Wealth.

While stocks gained, the bond market response was mild following its second-biggest advance this year.

At BMO Capital Markets, Ian Lyngen says that perhaps the muted response in Treasuries is because not only had the market already priced in a renewed emphasis on “tariffs as trade policy,” but it’s also an acknowledgment that increases in levies have a one-time impact on realized inflation.

Stocks resumed their post-election upward trajectory last week and the S&P 500 has since posted moderate gains. Overall, turnover however has been relatively muted in both cash and futures trading ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.