Yahoo Finance ASX to rise; Facebook, Instagram suffer outages
Good morning.
Here's your Yahoo Finance Friday morning wrap:
ASX: The Australian share market is expected to be off to a hopeful start after Wall Street overnight, with the S&P 500 hitting a new record high while Nasdaq hit its highest level since February. The Dow edged higher amid quiet trading.
Wall Street: The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.42% to 4,097.15; the Dow (^DJI) rose 0.17% to 33,502.39; and the Nasdaq (^IXIC): jumped by 1.03% to 13,829.31. More from Yahoo Finance US reporter Emily McCormick here.
AUD: The Aussie dollar is trading at 76.5 US cents.
Australia's economic recovery is coming along smoothly – but pundits and lawmakers have said repeatedly that it also hinges upon the vaccine rollout. But this has hit a pretty big road bump overnight, with fears the AstraZeneca vaccine might cause blood clots. Now, the Pfizer vaccine will be the main choice for people under 50. This has thrown Australia's vaccine rollout timeline into question.
"We expect that this will require some changes to the arrangements we have as part of the vaccination rollout," said Prime Minister Scott Morrison. More here.
Facebook and Instagram are down worldwide, according to social media users and Down Detector. People are turning to Twitter to talk – and joke – about it. Here's what we know.
The PM yesterday announced plans to overhaul workplace rules around sexual harassment, but stopped short of implementing all 55 recommendations from the Respect@Work report. Critics are saying that's not good enough.
On the agenda today: The Reserve Bank releases its twice-yearly assessment of Australia's financial system. Pundits and economists will be scrutinising it for any concern over Australia's rapidly growing property market. Here's some more on that.
Have a great day.
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