Australian market finished the week…

Posted on | by Leon Hinde | Leave a Comment on Australian market finished the week…

The Australian market finished the week to Friday up 1.0% based on the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Small companies outperformed larger companies, with the Small Ordinaries Index finishing the period up 1.7%.

The best performer was the Information Technology sector, up 3.4%. Aconex Limited (ACX) led the performance rising by 14.1%.

The worst performer was the Consumer Staples sector, down 1.7% with Wesfarmers Limited (WES) and Woolworths Limited (WOW) down 3.9% and 0.8% respectively.

US Stocks

Posted on | by Leon Hinde | Leave a Comment on US Stocks

Wall Street rose robustly for a second straight session, helped by higher oil prices and investors becoming more comfortable with the prospect of an interest rate hike as early as next month. On Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.82 per cent to end at 17,851

AUD/USD

Posted on | by Leon Hinde | Leave a Comment on AUD/USD

The AUD/USD has fallen for five consecutive weeks and with Iron-ore and Copper prices probing 3-month lows, we don’t see any technical indicators pointing to a price reversal this week. The AUD/USD peaked at .7835 on April 21st and posted a low of .7175 early last week and even though short-term indicators are beginning to get stretched, there is little upside momentum.

US Macro

Posted on | by Leon Hinde | Leave a Comment on US Macro

The Group of 7 finance minister’s meeting came and went with nothing more than the same well-worn bromides meant to create the illusion that the leaders of the global financial world are actually solving problems.

Still, the combination of stronger US data and signals from the FOMC that the normalization of rates can still be expected in 2016 helped the Greenback extend its recovery. Since May 3rd, the USD Index has traded higher for three consecutive weeks and gained ground on all the major pairs last week except for the Sterling.