Australian Market

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.45% higher, paring the week’s losses amid gains by financial, consumer and energy stocks. The benchmark fell 0.9% over a week that began with it reaching 7172.8, its highest close since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

US Market

 U.S. stocks staged a powerful rebound following their steepest selloff since October but recorded losses for the week.  

The S&P 500 rose 1.5% as trading wrapped up for the day, with gains accelerating in the afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.1%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.3%. The gains build on a rally that began Thursday when major indexes snapped a three-session losing streak.  

Still, stocks ended the week with losses. The S&P 500 fell 1.4% this week, while the Dow was down around 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has been the hardest hit, losing 2.3% for the week.  

The Nikkei Stock Average closed 2.3% higher amid abating concerns over Federal Reserve tapering and following stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data overnight. Gains were broad-based.

Commodities

Gold prices posted back-to-back gains for the session and week, settling at their highest price since February.  

June gold rose $14.10, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,838.10 an ounce on Comex, following a gain of nearly 0.1% on Thursday. Monday’s settlement was the highest for a most active contract since Feb. 10, FactSet data show. Earlier in the week, gold touched its lowest intraday level since May 6 before punching higher.

Oil Futures

Oil futures rose to settle higher for the week as a key U.S. fuel pipeline reopened after being shut down for days in response to a ransomware attack.  

West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose $1.55, or 2.4%, to settle at $65.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. July Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained $1.66, or 2.5%, to finish at $68.71 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

Forex

Major currencies were stronger against the US dollar in European and US trade. The Euro rose from lows near US$1.2092 to highs nearUS$1.2145 and was near US$1.2138 at the US close. The Aussie dollar rose from lows near US77.27 cents to highs near US77.86 cents and was near US77.72 cents at the US close. And the Japanese yen firmed from near 109.50 yen per US dollar to JPY109.22 and was near JPY109.30 at the US close.

European Markets

European sharemarkets advanced on Friday. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.2% with oil and gas shares up 2.1%, but the index fell by 0.5% for the week. The German Dax index jumped 1.4% and the UK FTSE index lifted 1.2%. In London trade shares in Rio Tinto fell by 2.7% and shares in BHP lost 1.3%.

Asian Markets

Chinese stock markets closed the session higher, following broad gains in Asian equities, to rebound from a sharp downturn on Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Composite indexes each rose 1.8%. The ChiNext Price Index, which measures the performance of startups and emerging industries, jumped 3.1%, its largest one-day jump in almost a month.

Nearly all sectors tracked up, with consumer-services providers, renewable energy firms and automakers leading the rise.