Australian dollar hits US80c, Dow Jones breaks above 26,000 record
Updated
A strong rebound on Wall Street may pave the way for Australian shares to open slightly higher today.
Market snapshot at 8:15am (AEDT):
- ASX SPI 200 futures +0.2pc at 5,969, ASX 200 (Wednesday's close) -0.5pc at 6,016
- AUD: 79.91 US cents, 57.68 British pence, 65.45 Euro cents, 88.86 Japanese yen, $NZ1.10
- US: Dow Jones +1.25pc at 26,116, S&P 500 +0.9pc at 2,802, Nasdaq +1pc at 7,298
- Europe: FTSE -0.4pc at 7,725, DAX -0.5pc at 13,184, Euro Stoxx 50 -0.3pc at 3,610
- Commodities: Brent crude +0.2pc at $US69.31/barrel, spot gold -0.8pc at $US1,327.93/ounce, iron ore -1.6pc at $US74.51/tonne
Aussie dollar cracks US80c
The Australian dollar hit a four-month high of 80.22 US cents at 6.30am AEDT.
But it has since retreated to 79.91 US cents, and continues to hover around that level.
"A weaker US dollar, a stronger global economy, higher commodity prices, and an improving Australian economy, with a structurally narrower current account deficit remain the current catalysts," said Commonwealth Bank's chief currency strategist Richard Grace.
The local currency, however, could drop if today's jobs and unemployment figures disappoint.
Reuters-polled economists are expecting the unemployment rate for December to stay at 5.4 per cent, and 9,000 new jobs to be created.
As for the big banks, Commonwealth Bank and NAB are even more optimistic with their estimate of new jobs — 20,000 and 35,000 respectively.
On the other hand, ANZ is more pessimistic with its prediction of only 5,000 new jobs.
"Any upside surprise on today's employment data will likely have an outsized upward impact for the Australian dollar given the run of solid data of late," said ANZ's co-head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett.
Best day for Wall Street
Wall Street is having its best day of the year, with massive jumps across all the main indexes.
Consumer staples, technology and healthcare were the best performing S&P sectors.
In one trading day, the Dow Jones has surged by 323 points (or 1.25 per cent) to a fresh record of 26,116.
The broader S&P 500 rose 0.9 per cent to 2,803, also its highest ever result.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1 per cent to 7,298.
The US market traded sharply higher overnight despite large bank stocks trading lower.
Goldman Sachs fell by 1.8 per cent after posting its first quarterly loss in six years, from a sharp drop in trading revenue and a huge (but anticipated) one-time tax charges.
Bank of America (BofA) shares dropped by 0.2 per cent after reporting that its quarterly profit nearly halved from tax-related charges.
However, BofA said the Trump administration's corporate tax cuts would eventually benefit its shareholders.
Technology stocks were boosted by Apple, which saw its share price increase by 1.65 per cent.
This was after the company said it would inject $US350 billion into the US economy over the next five years, as a result of the Trump tax cuts. However, it is unclear how Apple arrived at that number.
The tech company also announced it would open a second campus in America and create 20,000 new jobs through new hires.
Topics: stockmarket, company-news, economic-trends, currency, australia
First posted
