Australian Market

US Market

U.S. stocks climbed, led by shares of banks, which rose on a regulator’s decision to ease some post-financial crisis requirements. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 298 points, or 1.2%, in a volatile session of trading that saw the index swing in and out of the red. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite mirrored the moves and were both recently up about 1.1%.

Commodities

Gold futures tallied a second loss in a row, as some strength in the U.S. dollar put pressure on dollar-denominated prices for the metal, but a rise in new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and other countries, and the potential for another round of business
shutdowns to avoid the spread, kept gold prices higher for the week so far.

August gold fell $4.50, or nearly 0.3%, to settle at $1,770.60 an ounce, after declining 0.4% on Wednesday. Prices on Tuesday settled at the highest for a most-active contract since Oct. 4, 2012.

Oil Futures

Crude-oil prices finished higher after posting two consecutive sessions of declines, but worries about the daily rate of increase in new coronavirus cases in the U.S. and other countries is taking a toll on expectations for demand for crude and keeping prices lower for the week.

West Texas Intermediate crude for August tacked on 71 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $38.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following a nearly 5.9% decline on Wednesday, which marked its lowest finish for a front-month contract in a week.

Forex

European Markets

European sharemarkets lifted on Thursday. Banks rose 1.6% after the European Central Bank said it would offer euro loans against collateral to central banks outside the euro area to backstop funding markets amid the virus pandemic. The pan-European
STOXX 600 and German Dax indexes both rose by 0.7%. Lufthansa shares surged 7.1% after shareholder backing for a bailout. The UK FTSE index rose by 0.4% with London-listed shares in Rio Tinto (+0.8%) and BHP (+1.1%) both up.

Asian Markets

Earlier in the day in Asia, Japanese stocks fell, weighed by drops in auto and real-estate stocks amid continuing concerns about a slow recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.2% to 22259.79.

Markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong were closed for a public holiday. The Kospi Composite lost 2.3% in Seoul.