US shares rose on Monday led by the Tech sector which pushed the Nasdaq to a new record ahead of this weeks 4th July holiday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq finished 0.83 per cent higher to finish at a record 17,879.30. The S&P 500 closed 0.27 per cent higher and the Dow Jones finished 0.13 per cent higher.
Tech heavyweights Microsoft and Amazon each added more than 2 per cent while Apple jumped 2.9 per cent. AI giant Nvidia closed 0.6 per cent higher despite a report from Reuters that the company is poised to be charged with anticompetitive practices by French antitrust regulators.
Among smaller cap techs, Dell, Zscaler, Broadcom, Crowdstrike and Palantir were all at least 2 per cent higher. However, AMD, Arm, Pinterest and Uber were at least 2 per cent lower.
Cruise operator stocks were under pressure as Hurricane Beryl made landfall in the Caribbean as a Category 4 storm. Carnival slid 5.4 per cent, and Royal Caribbean lost nearly 1.9 per cent.
US Treasury yields jumped higher with the 10-year yield trading around the 4.50 per cent level as traders see an increasing probability for a Republican win in November, with Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs, which could dent growth. The benchmark 10-year note climbed 13 basis points to 4.471 per cent and the 2-year Treasury yield rose 4 basis points to 4.762 per cent.
The market will be closed on Thursday for the Fourth of July, however, investors will be looking to Friday for the June jobs report, which will give an indication of the state of the jobs market.
Turning to US sectors, following the strong tech results, the best performing sector was Technology which finished 1.3 per cent higher. The worst performer was Materials which closed down 1.55 per cent.
In European news, French stocks rallied more than 1 per cent after right-wing parties won a lower than expected percentage of votes in Sunday’s first round of parliamentary voting in France.
In Asian news, China's Central Bank plans to intervene in bond markets due to a rally lowering borrowing costs to a 20-year low. The People’s Bank of China announced it would borrow sovereign bonds from primary traders soon. The yield on China’s 10-year government bond dropped to 2.18 per cent, the lowest since 2002.
In commodities news, Fitch Solutions BMI stated that the lithium market has entered a new normal period of stability due to a rapidly expanding global supply, which has already pushed the market into surplus. The head of BMI commodities, stated that lithium prices will remain below the peaks of 2022 and 2023 for at least 5 to 10 years.
Futures
The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.3 per cent fall.
Currency
One Australian dollar at 7.30am was buying 66.59 US cents.
Commodities
Gold has lost 0.03 per cent. Silver has gained 0.18 per cent. Copper has added 0.60 per cent. Oil has gained 2.26 per cent.
Figures around the globe
European markets closed higher. London’s FTSE added 0.03 per cent, Frankfurt added 0.30 per cent, and Paris closed 1.09 per cent higher.
Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.12 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.01 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.92 per cent higher.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.22 per cent lower at 7,750.74
Dividends payable
Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL)
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG)
ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ)
Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.
