On the whole it was an upbeat end to the month for any markets – but not Australia where the ASX shed 3.4% and judging by the overnight futures market, will start the first day of June with a small loss of around 8 points.
The MSCI’s global equity index which tracks 45 major stock markets, dipped 0.1% overnight Wednesday, for a gain of 1.8% in May.
That was its 7th monthly rise and according to Reuters, its longest monthly winning streak in over a decade thanks to the way emerging markets have joined the rally.
In fact the MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 0.6% on Wednesday, but was up 2.9% in May, its biggest rise since February.
In Europe the Stoxx Europe 600 index edged down 0.1% to end at 389.99, for a fifth straight session of losses, but for the month, however, the index rose 0.8%.
On wall Street the Dow ended down 22.39 points, or 0.11%, at 21,007.08, the S&P 500 lost 1.12 points, or 0.05%, at 2,411.79 and the Nasdaq closed down 4.67 points, or 0.08%, at 6,198.52.
For May, the Dow gained 0.3%; the S&P 1.2% and the Nasdaq 2.5%.
US stocks were hit by weak trading updates from a couple of big banks, led by JPMorgan. That saw the financial sector, down 1.3%. Energy shares lost ground on falling oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 66 points, or 0.3%, at 20,964.
In Australia the ASX200’s loss of 3.4% thanks to investor concerns about the housing boom, weak retail spending, falling commodity prices (especially iron ore) and the sell off in banks thanks to concerns about earnings and the budget’s bank levy.
The big four banks, which make up around a quarter of the ASX200 by market capitalisation fell by between 8.9% to 14.5% in May.
And among retailers, Myer fell 22.1% over the month, while Super Retail Group slumped by 18.5%.
The benchmark ASX 200 Index and the All Ordinaries Index each rose 0.1% to 5724.6 points and 5761.3 points, respectively on Wednesday.
The Aussie dollar fell by just over one US cent to end around 74.30. US bond yields fell with the yield on the 10 year security dipping under 220% briefly overnight, down 8 points amid continuing concerns about weakening US inflation which has now fallen for the past three months.
