Another negative session for US stocks, this time on a Tweet. US President Donald Trump posted on social media saying, on September 1, the US will impose a new tariff, 10 per cent 'on the remaining $300 billion of goods and products from China to the US'. His Tweet then confirmed the new levy will be on top $250 billion already tariffed at 25 per cent. In the prior US session on Wall Street, stocks retreated after the Fed cut the cash rate by 0.25 per cent, but that wasn’t what spooked the market, (the cut was expected), it was the Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying in a press conference the cut was just a ‘mid-cycle adjustment’, implying there won’t be a suite of rate cuts. Locally, Aussie equities have fallen for two straight session, from fresh record highs, and at the moment the SPI futures are suggested a 0.2 per cent fall.
Local economic news Producer Price Indexes, June 2019.
Retail Trade, June 2019.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.1 per cent to 26,583, the S&P 500 fell 0.9 per cent to close at 2954 and the NASDAQ dropped 0.8 per cent to 8111.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE fell slightly, down 0.03 per cent, Paris added 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt was up 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.8 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 0.8 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent fall.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 24 points or 0.4 per cent lower at 6789.
Company news Rio Tinto
(ASX:RIO) released their 2019 half year results after the market closed yesterday showing underlying EBITDA of US$10.3 billion, an 11 per cent increase on the prior corresponding period. Underlying earnings came in 12 per cent higher than the first half of FY 2018 at US$4.9 billion due to a strong contribution from Iron Ore. They reported that in 2019 they expect the run-rate from our mine-to-market programme to be around $0.5 billion, despite weather impacts. This reflects operational challenges experienced in the Pilbara, which reduced their 2019 first half run-rate to $0.2 billion. Shares in Rio Tinto
(ASX:RIO) closed 1.1per cent lower at $97.81 yesterday.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 67.97US cents, 56.09Pence Sterling, 72.92 Yen and 61.35 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron Ore futures suggest a 2.9 per cent drop
Gold has added $19.70 to US$1458 an ounce.
Silver has fallen $0.06 to US$16.34 an ounce.
Oil has fallen $4.09 to US$54.49 a barrel.
