Yahoo Finance Elderly-only shopping hour: Yahoo Finance Monday morning wrap
Good morning.
Here’s what you need to know in Australia and beyond to kick off your morning:
ASX: Australian investors could see local shares jump one per cent when the market opens after a massive rally on Wall Street when US President Donald Trump rolled out a plan to tackle the coronavirus.
The SPI200 futures contract was up 61 points, or 1.09 per cent, at 5655 at 0700 AEDT on Monday, suggesting Australia's volatile market could surge one per cent at 1000 AEDT.
Australian shares staged a dramatic recovery on Friday from morning losses of as much as 8.1 per cent to finish 4.4 per cent higher. Since then US markets jumped nine per cent on a national emergency plan to combat Covid-19, CommSec chief economist Craig James says.
However, investors would react more positively if the number of people contracting coronavirus stabilised or even better, started to decline, Mr James said.
AUD: The Aussie dollar was buying 61.35 US cents at 0700 AEDT, down from 62.98 US cents as the market closed on Friday.
From Tuesday, Woolworths will close its doors between 7am to 8am – unless you’re elderly or a person with disability following panic-buying that saw supermarkets’ shelves stripped of essential items.
Coming from a different country and fail to self-isolate? That’s a $13,000 fine, as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warns.
"That bill was passed in early February and there are penalties for not complying with the notification and that is around $13,000," she said. "We have random police checks to make sure people are compliant with that notice."
New Zealand’s central bank slashed the official cash rate by 0.75 per cent, from 1 per cent down to 0.25 per cent.
Dozens of Aussie workplaces are enforcing work-from-home policies. If that’s the case, you can claim some amount of your household costs back on tax. H&R Block tax communications expert Mark Chapman spells out what you can and can’t claim.
Your credit score matters. And if you’ve got a credit card, you should know about how it affects your credit score. Finder’s money expert Bessie Hassan explains.
ICYMI
If you’re working from home, this is a productivity expert on how to structure your time.
Bill Gates made a shock announcement over the weekend. Lucy Dean reports.
–with AAP
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