Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news the New Zealand dollar fell below support around 80.8 USc to settle around 80.5 USc in morning trade after a late selloff on US stock markets took appetites for riskier assets lower.
US stocks closed down around 0.2%, giving up earlier gains as technology stocks and financial stocks fell. Markets remain subdued during the Northern Hemisphere holidays, but are wary of the risks the much-hoped-for easing of monetary policy expected on both sides of the Atlantic in September may not materialise. See more here at Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, European stocks rose around 0.6% after slightly better than expected GDP growth figures for some parts of the Euro-zone economy.
German GDP grew 0.3% in the June quarter from the March quarter, which was better than the 0.2% growth expected.
French GDP was flat when economists had expected a small contraction. But Spanish and Italian GDP fell sharply and the overall Euro-zone area GDP contracted 0.2% in Q2 from Q1 and contracted 0.4% in Q2 from the same quarter a year ago. See more here at Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered has settled allegations by New York's financial regulator that it covered up US$250 billion of Iranian money laundering by paying a settlement of US$340 million. See more here at Reuters.
(Updated to correct figure in headline for settlement to US$340 million from US$380 million)
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