OPENING CALL: The Australian share market is expected to open lower. The SPI Futures contract expected to open 7 points down.
Airbus SE said Tuesday it expects to cut roughly 15,000 positions from its global workforce by the summer of 2021, as the company faces continued pressure from reduced demand for commercial aircraft due to reduced travel stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
Fed Chairman Says Economy Faces New Challenges From Coronavirus – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers Tuesday that the reopening of the U.S. economy and recent upturn in spending and hiring came sooner than central bank
officials had expected.
Australian Market
Australian shares closed 1.4% higher to 5897.9. Only the health-care and property sectors failed to gain.
US Market
U.S. stocks were higher, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.5% to 3,100. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%, or 217 points, to 25,812, based on preliminary numbers. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.9% to 10,059. U.S. stocks wrapped up their best quarter in more than 20 years, a remarkable rally after the coronavirus pandemic brought business around the world to a virtual standstill. The S&P 500 finished the quarter up 20% at 3100, its biggest percentage gain since the fourth quarter of 1998. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18% to 25812, its best quarter since 1987.
Commodities
Gold futures posted a gain of nearly 13% for the three-month period, the largest quarterly percentage climb since 2016, with analysts renewing talk of record prices by year end. The August gold contract settled at $1,800.50 an ounce, the highest finish since September 2011.
Oil Futures
Crude-oil prices finished with a loss, down nearly 36% in the first half of the year, according to FactSet data, as the spread of COVID-19 continued to feed expectations for weaker energy demand. August West Texas Intermediate oil fell 43 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $39.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Forex
European Markets
Asian Markets
Earlier in the day in Asia, Japanese stocks rose, led by gains in electronics stocks. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.3% to 22288.14. China’s major stock-market indexes closed higher. The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.8% at 2984.67, but the index was down 2.2% for the first-half of the year.
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