Asian stocks rallied, following the US's lead. Tech shares drove the S&P to another record high, 5488.50 - the 30th all-time high this year. All other major benchmarks climbed; Japan, Australia and South Korea. The outlier is the CAC -4.59% month to date. The main event overnight was the RBA keeping their benchmark interest rate at a 12-year high of 4.35% for a fifth straight gathering. However, the Australian dollar extended earlier gains after Reserve Bank Governor, Michele Bullock, said in a press conference that the central bank discussed the case for a rate hike at its policy meeting.
The unusual Wednesday holiday in the US tomorrow, Juneteenth makes today a busier day on the data front. We have US retail sales, business inventories, and industrial production. On the speaking front we hear from the Fed’s Thomas Barkin, Lorie Logan, Adriana Kugler, Alberto Musalem and Austan Goolsbee.
Marketwise, the yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.27%, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $80.23 a barrel, Spot gold rose 0.2% to $2,323.42 an ounce, Bitcoin fell 0.8% to $65,820.66, Ether fell 1.5% to $3,460.07, Cable opens sub 1.27 and EURUSD at 1.0730 with USDJPY at 157.80. The other story that caught my eye is that Tesla has been granted approval to test its advanced driver-assistance system on some Shanghai streets. The city of Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province may also issue approval for the US electric carmaker to test the system - Elon is worth his pay packet after all.
