Yahoo Finance ASX to open lower as 'unnatural, insane' activity overtakes markets
Good morning. Here’s Yahoo Finance’s morning wrap for Thursday.
ASX: Australian shares are expected to slide at the open after a rough night for US markets, with futures down 77 points at 8:10am AEDT.
The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index closed lower by 44.1 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 6780.6 on Wednesday while the All Ordinaries closed down by 51.2 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 7060.2.
Wall Street: US stocks had their worst day in three months on Wednesday local time as wild moves on the GameStop stock occupied attention. Additionally, investor sentiment was running lower after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates near zero.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.05 per cent, to 30,303.17, the S&P 500 lost 2.57 per cent, to 3,750.77 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.61 per cent, to 13,270.60.
GameStop: It’s the word of the day, but what on earth is going on with GameStop stocks? It’s a stock market spectacle famous fund manager Michael Burry has described as “unnatural, insane, and dangerous”.
Others have described it as a “nerds versus Wall Street” battle, and even Elon Musk has something to say. And some investors with student loans are betting they’ll be able to use their profits to wipe their debt.
Businesswoman’s $280k win: An Australian businesswoman has won $280,000 in a defamation case against a major Australian publication after copping an “offensive mockery”. Here’s what happened.
Microsoft’s prediction: The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, has said the company has become a major player in the cybersecurity space, and this is a good thing given the “big crisis” the world is facing in cybersecurity right now.
‘World’s most dangerous’: A group of countries have successfully taken down the Emotet hacking network, described as the “world’s most dangerous”. Here’s why Emotet was so bad.
BlackRock’s warning: Larry Fink is the head of the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, and in his latest annual letter to CEOs, Fink warned that if high-polluting companies fail to transition into clean energy, they’ll face major barriers to investment. This is what he said.
Credit score: Your ability to score a home loan can come down to this number, so why do only 7 per cent of Australians actually know their credit score? Here’s what you need to know.
Borders: And Queensland will open its borders to NSW from 1 February as Australia’s streak of zero community transmission continues, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk describing it as great news for tourism operators.
“It's a great time for families to be reunited, but also, too, for people to plan their holidays. I met with tourism operators yesterday, they're really feeling it at the moment,” she said.
Have a great.
With AAP.
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