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• In US economic data, the ADP employment report shows jobs rose by 128,000 in May (survey: 300,000). New claims for unemployment insurance fell from 211,000 to 200,000 in the past week (survey: 210,000). According to Challenger, job cuts fell from 24,286 to 20,712 in May (survey: 26,000). Factory orders rose by 0.3% in April (survey: +0.7%).
• European sharemarkets rose on Thursday. French spirits group Remy Cointreau rose 4.9% after its profit beat expectations and it raised profit guidance. Other luxury good stocks rose 1.7-3.1%. Investors were encouraged by data showing Eurozone producer prices rising 1.2% from the previous month in April, below expectations of 2.3% rise. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose by 0.6%. The German Dax index gained 1%. The UK market was closed for a public holiday.
• US sharemarkets posted firm broad-based gains on Thursday. The ADP employment report showed a smaller-than-expected lift in jobs in April. Consumer discretionary led the way, up 3%. Shares in
Tesla rose 4.7% with Nvidia up 6.9% and Meta Platforms up 5.4%. But shares in Hewlett Packard fell by 5.2% after downgrading profit and revenue expectations. The Dow Jones index closed higher by
435 points or 1.3%. The S&P 500 index rose by 1.8%. And the Nasdaq index gained 322 points or 2.7%.
• US treasuries rose on Thursday (yields higher). Federal Reserve vice-chair Lael Brainard said market pricing of 50 basis point rate hikes in both June and July ” seems like a reasonable path”. US 10- year yields fell by 2 points to near 2.91%. And US 2-year yields fell by 2 points to near 2.64%.
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• Major currencies rose against a weaker US dollar in European and US trade. The Euro rose from lows near US$1.0650 to highs near US$1.0750 and was highs at the US close. The Aussie dollar eased from US71.40 cents to highs near US72.70 cents and was near US72.60 cents at the US close. And the Japanese yen rose from levels near 130 yen per US dollar to JPY129.50 and was near JPY129.85 at the US close.
• Global oil prices rose by 1.0-1.5% on Thursday. OPEC+ agreed to raise output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and 648,000 bpd in August, according to Reuters. But Russian production is down 1 million bpd following sanctions. Also data showed that US crude
inventories fell by more than expected in the latest week. The Brent crude price rose by US$1.32 or 1.1% to US$117.61 a barrel. And the US Nymex crude price rose by US$1.61 or 1.4% to US$116.87 a barrel.
• Base metal prices were unavailable on Thursday due to a holiday in the UK.
• The gold futures price rose by US$22.70 or 1.2% to US$1,871.40 an ounce. Spot gold was trading near US$1,869 an ounce at the US close. The iron ore futures price rose by US$6.86 or 5.1% to US$142.20 a tonne. Ahead: In Australia, lending commitments and new car sales data are released with purchasing manager indexes (PMIs) for the services sector. In the US, non-farm payrolls (jobs) is released with
PMIs for services.
Published by CommSec
