Here's my summary of the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am, including news markets have a sense of turning points in both Europe and China - turning down that is.
Overnight, gold has turned sharply higher reaching US$1,318/oz after the US dollar fell and the markets absorbed the last Fed statement. The equity markets took a breather.
But on the ground, the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region accelerated in June, more evidence the US economy was strengthening.
Argentina said this morning that it isn't going to New York to negotiate with holdout bondholders, casting doubt over whether it will seek a deal to stave off a debt default.
On the other hand, the holdouts said they would negotiate.
In Europe, the IMF has warned that the economic recovery is not strong enough there and the ECB should be planning quantitative easing.
In a move that should have implications here, the Australian government announced it will explicitly ban commissions for the sale of financial products and give itself new powers to dismantle incentives it decides are against consumers’ interests. At the same time it is removing much of the bureaucratic 'protection' framework built up over many years. In the end, these changes will probably make it easier for banks to push financial products on to their customers in Australia.
Yesterday, Rio Tinto again cut the price of its iron ore as sales into China slump and this was not its first discounting. It followed other iron ore miners. The extent of the slowdown in China may be more than authorities realise as the effect spreads out from the core steel industry, driven by their housing slowdown.
Back in the US, yields on the benchmark UST 10yr bond fell today and are now at 2.60% this morning. The price of both US and Brent oil continues its steady rise, with the Brent price pushing up through US$114 for the first time in 2014. The lower American prices gives them a distinct economic advantage.
We start today with the NZ dollar holding on to yesterday's rises. We are still at 87.1 USc, 92.7 AUc and the TWI is at 81.0.
If you want to catch up with all the changes from yesterday we have an update here.
The easiest place to stay up with today's event risk is by following our Economic Calendar here »
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.