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  • ALL ORDS

    7,957.80
    +32.60 (+0.41%)
     
  • AUD/USD

    0.6505
    -0.0055 (-0.84%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,703.20
    +27.40 (+0.36%)
     
  • OIL

    82.47
    -0.25 (-0.30%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,157.20
    -7.10 (-0.33%)
     
  • Bitcoin AUD

    97,979.40
    -6,583.30 (-6.30%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     

ASX rises, AUD drops while Bitcoin peaks

NSW suffers its fifth week of lockdown, causing a dent in the Aussie economy. Source: Getty/Yahoo Finance
NSW suffers its fifth week of lockdown, causing a dent in the Aussie economy. Source: Getty/Yahoo Finance

Good morning.

Here's everything you need to know about finance markets for today.

ASX: The Australian share market is expected to start the week in a positive fashion. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 22 points or 0.3 per cent higher.

Wall Street: This follows a strong end to the week on Wall Street, which saw the Dow Jones rise 0.7 per cent, the S&P 500 climb 1 per cent, and the Nasdaq storm 1.05 per cent higher. The latte could bode well for Australian tech shares today.

AUD: The Australian dollar is trading at 0.7367 to the US dollar as at 7.30am this morning.

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Oil: Energy producers will be on watch today after oil prices pushed higher. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 0.2 per cent to US$72.07 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price has risen 0.4 per cent to US$74.10 a barrel. Forecasts for tight supplies gave oil prices a boost.

Gold: Australian gold miners could come under pressure today after the gold price softened on Friday night. According to CNBC, the spot gold price fell 0.2 per cent to US$1,805.90 an ounce. The gold price weakened after bond yields and the US dollar strengthened.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin is trading higher over multiple days, coming off a July 21 low of 29296.39 to a peak of over 34,000 Saturday July 24, a move of over 15 per cent. Meanwhile, Ethereum is bouncing off a low of 1717.17 on Wednesday to a peak of over 2180 at the time of publication, up over 25 per cent in four days.

JobKeeper reboot: Trade unions continue to demand the federal government reinstate JobKeeper and are calling for small enterprise grants as the NSW lockdown continues.The ACTU wants immediate cash grants for small businesses and says current assistance measures are "confusing, inadequate and often administratively burdensome".

$300m per day: Even before the latest round of COVID-19 lockdowns, which has seen half the population affected, many Australians were suffering financial stress or feeling insecure about their income and work. These lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and South Australia are costing the economy $300 million per day, which looks set to go into contraction in the September quarter.

PM's promise: Scott Morrison has promised an additional 90,000 Pfizer vaccine doses for crisis-hit NSW in the coming week and up to 110,000 more doses in the following weeks. The prime minister says this comes on top of the extra 50,000 he offered the NSW premier last Friday and the 150,000 brought forward on July 7.

AU's best economy: Tasmania has taken out the top spot in the Commonwealth Bank’s State of the States report for the sixth time in a row. Queensland and Western Australia are showing the strongest momentum move into the second half of 2021 due to an increase in Aussies moving to those states, the report said.

Hav e a great day.

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