Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news markets are showing signs of risk aversion following the Ukraine airplane disaster.
US stocks fell while Treasuries rallied with gold after Ukraine said rebels shot down a Malaysian passenger jet with nearly 300 people on board near its border with Russia. Sanctions intended to curb violence in the region sent European markets lower.
Building permits and housing starts in the US were sharply lower in June than May, although still significantly above the same month a year ago. They were surprisingly weak in the South. Housing is not contributing much to the recent upturn in American growth. Factory data out overnight was good however, building on a trend, and jobless claims fell yet again last week.
Microsoft has said it will cut up to 18,000 jobs marking the deepest cuts in the iconic technology firm's 39-year history. Most of them will be in Europe and most of them related to the recently acquired Nokia unit.
Across the ditch, Australia has repealed its carbon tax.
Also in Australia, the AFR is reporting that a senior Australian regulator has floated changes to narrow the gap between how much capital the big four banks and the rest must set aside against home loans. Others say such a move is inevitable, and it’s just a matter of how much more the big banks will need. Their capital troubles will grow if the RBNZ also made the same moves here.
Overnight, the USDA monitoring of international dairy prices came in weaker, confirming the recent auction trend.
In New York, yields on benchmark UST 10 yr bonds fell sharply on the Ukraine news and are now at 2.48%. The US oil prices rose almost $2/barrel in the US but much less for Brent and the Brent premium narrowed further. Gold jumped to US$1,316/oz a +1.5% rise on the day.
And we start today with the NZ dollar slightly lower. We are now just under 87 USc, at 92.7 AUc. The TWI is just under 81.
If you want to catch up with all the changes yesterday we have an update here.
The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
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