Like the ASX, Wall Street has had a stellar first half of the year which was capped by the strongest June for decades.
And an upbeat start to the second half of 2019 is expected today after the meeting between presidents Trump and Xi seemingly restarted the trade war truce talks at the weekend between the US and China.
Before that though, Friday saw Wall Street notch up modest gains.
The Dow rose 73.38 points, or 0.28%, to 26,599.96, the S&P 500 added 16.84 points, or 0.58%, to 2,941.76 and the Nasdaq edged up 38.49 points, or 0.48%, to 8,006.24.
For the month, the Dow jumped 7.2%, its best gain June gain since 1938 when the blue-chip benchmark surged an eye-popping 24.3% on the month as the US economy finally started emerging from the second depression of the 1930s.
At one stage early last week the monthly gain was on track to be around 9%.
The S&P 500 index notched its best June return since 1955 with a rise of around 6.9%, since 1955 when the broad-market benchmark rose 8.2%.
The S&P 500 rose 17.3% for the six months to June 28, similar to the 17.2% gain for the ASX 200.
The Nasdaq rose 7% return in June, which would represent its best June since a 16.6% gain back in 2000 at the height of the tech and net boom which quickly became a collapse.
The Nasdaq jumped 20% in the first six months of this year.
US Shares post stellar June half
One thing is certain – the markets – especially Wall Street – will not be able to repeat the first half (and June) performance over the rest of 2019 and into 2020. Something will give – watch bond yields.
