Yahoo Finance Stocks choppy overnight, AUD stable, oil slumps
Good morning.
Here's everything you need to know in finance markets today.
ASX: Aussie markets tipped to open flat after choppy trading on Wall Street overnight.
Wall Street: US stocks tumbled on Tuesday as concerns about the cost of infrastructure spending and potential tax hikes to pay for President Joe Biden's US$1.9 trillion (A$2.5 trillion) relief bill weighed on investors who also fear further downside in the market.
AUD: The Australian dollar is currently trading at 0.76198 to the US dollar.
Treasury outlook: Treasury chief Steven Kennedy will get the opportunity to update senators on the economic outlook when he faces a hearing in Canberra. The economy's recovery from last year's recession has been much stronger than predicted when Treasury helped compile the mid-year budget review last December.
Oil slumps: Oil prices tumbled about 6 per cent on Tuesday as concerns over new pandemic curbs and slow vaccine rollouts in Europe compounded additional crude volumes. Brent crude futures settled down $3.83, or 5.9 per cent, at $60.79 a barrel, after hitting a session low of $60.50. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) ended $3.80, or 6.2 per cent, lower at $57.76 a barrel, after touching a low of $57.32.
Jobkeeper: There were one million employees and 370,000 businesses that were still reliant on the JobKeeper subsidy at the end of January. The wage subsidy program will end on March 31. Since JobKeeper was first introduced in April last year, more than 2.7 million employees and about 680,000 business have left the scheme, representing a 72 per cent reduction.
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