It was another weak and volatile week for markets large and small as the taper tantrum again shook bond markets, which in turn rattled sharemarkets, but did absolutely nothing for commodity markets, especially gold and oil which again fell.
In Australia the local market will start with a 10 point gain this morning according to trading on the ASX 200 futures markets.
Global share markets were twitchy again last week as bond yields again rose continuing the latest “taper tantrum” that was kicked off by several central banks led by the European Central Bank in late June.
Not helping tantrum sentiment was news of a solid month for job growth in June with 220,000 new positions reported.
The increase in new jobs was the largest in four months and second biggest haul of the year, plus another 47,000 jobs were reported for the two preceding months.
Wages growth though was static at an annual 2.5%, the same as in May and still under the 2.8% growth rate earlier in the year.
The news of solid jobs growth helped US shares rise 0.6% on Friday, while Eurozone shares were flat as rising bond yields hit sentiment.
For the week, US markets rose 0.1%. Eurozone shares were up 0.5% for the week, but Japanese shares lost 0.5% and Chinese and Australian shares fell 0.3%.
Wall Street finished higher Friday as tech stocks rebounded from a slump and the jobs report boosted confidence (but made a third US rate rise more certain later in the year).
The Dow rose 94.30 points, or 0.4%, to close at 21,414.34, for a weekly gain of 0.3%. The S&P 500 index rose 15.43 points, or 0.6%, to end at 2,425.18, led for a less than 0.1% weekly gain. The Nasdaq closed up 63.61 points, or 1%, at 6,153.08, for a weekly gain of 0.2%.
In Australia the chances of a rise this morning when the ASX opens remains very possible, but going on last week’s volatility, no one is quite certain.
By Friday the ASX had given up the week’s gains, despite seeing the best day of the year on Tuesday.
The ASX 200 dropped 55 points, or 1%, to 5704 on Friday, ending the week down 0.3%. The All Ordinaries index dropped 0.4% over the five trading days.
The big four banks might have drive the big rally on Tuesday as the South Australian opposition announced its plan to vote against that state’s bank tax, but they ended the week mixed. ANZ lost 1.3% on Friday and 0.4% over the week. The CBA shed 1.1%,and 0.8% for the week.
The NAB was down 0.9% Friday but still up 0.7% over the week while Westpac lost 0.8% on Friday but was up 0.3% for the week.
BHP rose 1.2% on Friday and a large 5.6% over the week – despite weaker iron ore prices at the end of the week.
Rio Tinto added 1.1% on Friday and 2.8% over the week.
Shares in Coca-Cola Amatil were dumped for the second day in a row on Friday, down 2.7% and 6.1% over the week to $8.67, its lowest point in since June 2015.
