Yahoo Finance ASX falls, crypto recovers, govt announces COVID-19 vaccine forecast
Good morning.
Here's everything you need to know about finance markets for today.
ASX: The Australian share market looks set to fall again on Thursday. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 26 points or 0.35 per cent lower this morning.
Wall Street: The Nasdaq has climbed to a record-high close, fuelled by a rally in Tesla Inc, while the S&P; 500 dipped even as investors cheered data that showed a record peak for US factory activity in June. Gains in Nvidia Corp and Facebook Inc extended a recent rebound in top-shelf growth stocks that fell out of favour in recent months as investors focused on companies expected to do well when the economy recovers from the pandemic.
AUD: The Australian dollar is trading at 0.7577 to the US dollar as at 7am this morning.
Oil: Energy producers could be on the rise today after oil prices pushed higher. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 0.6 per cent to US$73.27 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price has risen 0.7 per cent to US$75.33 a barrel. Oil prices climbed to two-year highs after US supply tightened.
Gold: Gold miners could underperform today after the gold price softened overnight. According to CNBC, the spot gold price is down 0.1 per cent to US$1,775.70 an ounce. While rate hike concerns were eased by the US Fed yesterday, it wasn’t enough to lift the price of the precious metal.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrencies were broadly higher on Wednesday morning, recovering from a sell-off that saw bitcoin plunge below $30,000 and lose all gains made in 2021 amid regulatory action in China.
Crypto scams: Cryptocurrency is building in popularity, which means criminals have taken advantage of the opportunity with these massive scams. With $4.5 billion lost, here are the five biggest crypto scams of all time.
Buffett: Warren Buffett is resigning as a trustee from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The announcement comes weeks after Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage but would continue to jointly run the foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.
Mcafee: US technology entrepreneur John McAfee apparently took his own life in his prison cell after the Spanish high court authorised his extradition to the United States, his lawyer says.
Power prices: Power prices have eased by 10 per cent for households who took advantage of a policy introduced in mid-2019 by the Morrison government.
COVID-19: Treasurer Josh Frydenberg believes Australia has dodged a bullet from the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of health outcomes and the strength of the recovery from last year's recession. But he has warned Australians they are going to have to learn to live with the virus until its impact can be mitigated through the rollout of the vaccine to as wide a number of people as quickly as possible.
Frydenberg forecasts: Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will release the five-yearly Intergenerational Report on Monday next week, a guide to how the Australian economy will perform over the next 40 years.
Vaccine forecasts: AstraZeneca is likely to be phased out of Australia's coronavirus vaccine rollout later in the year as more Pfizer and Moderna doses join the immunisation program. The federal government has released the vaccine distribution projections it supplied to state and territory health authorities.
Have a great day.
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