In US economic data, the JOLTs report shows job openings fell from 11.17 million in July to 10.053m in August (survey: 10.775m). Factory orders were flat in August (survey: flat). According to Redbook, chain store sales in the past week were up 12.3% on a year ago, compared with the 11% annual gain in the preceding week.
European sharemarkets lifted on Tuesday on hopes that central banks will ease the pace of future rate hikes as they attempt to bring inflation under control. Euro-zone producer prices rose by 5% in August, close to market expectations. Travel & leisure stocks rose by 6.2% with technology stocks up by 5.1%, boosted by gains in chipmakers. The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 3.2%. The UK FTSE 100 index gained 2.6% higher.
US sharemarkets soared on Tuesday. Data showed that job openings fell by the most in nearly 2½ years in August, raising hopes that the Federal Reserve can temper further rate hikes. Boosting investor sentiment was news that billionaire Elon Musk will go ahead with his bid to take Twitter into private ownership. Musk has maintained the original offer price of $54.20 per share. Shares in Twitter rose by 22.3%. Amongst sector gainers was banks, up 4.4%.
The Dow Jones index rose by 825 points or 2.8%. The S&P 500 index gained 3.1%. And the Nasdaq index lifted by 361 points or 3.3%.
US longer-term treasuries rose on Tuesday (yields lower). Traders cited a surprise decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to slow its pace of rate hikes. Further, the drop in in US job openings indicated that rate hikes were working to slow the economy. But San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said that further rates
hikes will be needed to get inflation under control. US 10-year yields fell by around 2 points to near 3.635%. And US 2-year yields were steady near 4.11%.
Major currencies were mixed against the US dollar in European and US trade. The Euro rose from lows near US$0.9825 to highs near US$0.9990 and was near session highs at the US close. The Aussie dollar fell from highs near US65.45 cents to lows near US64.50 cents and was near US65 cents at the US close. And the Japanese yen
rose from near 144.91 yen per US dollar to JPY143.95 and was near JPY144.00 at the US close.
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Global oil prices rose by around 3% on Tuesday. Traders expect OPEC+ oil producers to agree on a cut in production quotas of at least 1 million barrels per day (mbd). OPEC+ producers meet later today in Vienna. There was even speculation that the cut in quotas could be as high as 2mbd. The Brent crude oil price rose by US$2.94 or 3.3% to US$91.80 a barrel. And the US Nymex crude oil price lifted by US$2.89 or 3.5% to US$86.52 a barrel.
Base metal prices were firmer on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday with gains of between 0.8-6.0% with tin up the least and aluminium up the most.
The gold futures price rose by US$28.50 an ounce or 1.7% to US$1,730.50 an ounce. Spot gold was trading near US$1,724 an ounce at the US close. Iron ore futures rose by US99 cents or 1.1% to US$95.21 a tonne.
Originally published by CommSec
