On Wednesday, there were three companies worth more than $3 trillion USD: Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple.

The European Central Bank has cut interest rates for the first time in nearly five years, moving ahead of its US and UK counterparts in lowering borrowing costs after the biggest price surge for a generation. The move was widely forecast and pushed European shares to record highs for a second day.

The March quarter national accounts didn’t tell us anything we didn't already know – the economy is struggling. The 0.1% rise in growth in the quarter was very underwhelming, and the 1.1% annual rate indicated stagnation.

Five months into the year, Australian car sales are growing at a record pace. If this trend doesn’t slow in the next seven months, total new sales could top 1.3 million, setting a new all-time high.

Suddenly, the flow of economic news is all confused, with weak news becoming good news, at least for US investors on Tuesday.

India's stocks appear to be selling down for a second consecutive day today, following Tuesday’s significant slump in response to the surprising election outcome.

"Follow the money" is always a good adage in stock market investment. There's nothing like momentum or choice to tell a broader story about what investors and companies are doing with their money. And that applies in exploration for minerals as well as energy commodities.

Widespread cheating in the huge Japanese car industry has been exposed by a government investigation, with Toyota, Mazda, Hino, Daihatsu, and Honda caught up and named for breaches of various rules and safety tests.

The old "boom, no it's a bust" mentality among iron ore traders emerged Monday when Singapore prices slid 4% or more on nerves about Chinese demand.

There won’t be any confirmation for a year or more, but the South Korean government has suddenly become very, very optimistic that it has identified a potential major oil and gas resource in the East Sea, off the city of Pohang (home to the huge steel group, POSCO).

In more unwelcome news for the lithium wannabees and actual miners and refiners, BYD, the world’s biggest maker of electrified vehicles, is continuing its push away from concentrating on lithium-gobbling battery-only EVs.

Qantas (ASX:QAN), Bonza, and Air New Zealand (ASX:AIZ) will miss out, but their global peers are having a great 2024 if the latest earnings upgrade estimate from IATA, the world airline lobby group, is any guide.

Dealmaking in the US oil and gas sector has soared to nearly $200 billion over the past year as major producers race to acquire rivals and expand their scale, reshaping the national energy landscape.

Australia’s lowest-paid workers will receive an inflation-matching pay rise of 3.75% this year, down from 5.75% last year. The rise equates to $33.10 a week after the Fair Work Commission's decision was announced on Monday.

The Chinese group Yuxiao Fund, along with four associates having ties to major Chinese conglomerates, will be compelled to reduce their shareholdings in Northern Minerals, a strategic rare earths miner, as the federal government deemed the acquisition contrary to "our national interest."

OPEC+ may have agreed on Sunday to extend a voluntary production cut of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil a day deep into next year, but that is an acknowledgment that the output restrictions have failed to support prices at a level its members want.

The headlines from American retailing for the first quarter of 2024 told a very mixed picture – lots of cold, some hot, and little in between for many chains.

Gold had a fourth straight monthly gain in May, and its supporters think it will gain again in the coming days, particularly during the first trading week of June. This is trading off the back of the final inflation report for May, which was released on Friday and left us none the wiser about the course of price pressures, Fed interest rates, and bond yields.

So where do markets go on the first day of the new month (and for many companies, the final month of the second quarter and the 2023-24 financial year)?

Big week ahead for the Australian economy and markets. The first-quarter economic growth will be out midweek, but before then, the 2024 National Wage rise will be revealed later today (Monday).

Two interest rate moves are up for decision this week: US jobs data for May, Chinese trade data (also for May), and Australian economic growth for the first quarter.

After next Thursday, June 7, S&P Global has a seriously hard problem to resolve: does it start thinking about including Nvidia in the Dow, Wall Street's oldest and most prestigious index, and if they do, which among the 30 companies in it is to be dropped?

The headline figures from Dell Technologies in its latest quarterly report, issued Thursday after hours, suggested AI and server 'boom,' but on closer scrutiny, investors shouted 'gloom, gloom' as there was a warning of margin pressures from a senior executive in a post-results briefing.

The US economy is still growing, and the job market appears to be solidly underpinned by low unemployment, according to the latest GDP and unemployment benefit claims.

Surging demand from AI and various other data needs for cloud computing and data centers is more than offsetting weakening investment from mining, which has traditionally been the driver of new private business capex in Australia.

Big Oil is shrinking as its options contract. Breathless reporting and market analysts trumpet takeovers in the oil and gas sector as something positive, but those doing the taking over can tell them that it is all defensive, not expansionary.

The International Monetary Fund has turned a bit bullish on China’s economic outlook.