Fed Chair commentary calms rate fears

US markets traded in positive territory for most of the day encouraged by comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell that suggested that recent negative data does not materially change the overall picture from his perspective, and the Fed’s guidance on rates remains unchanged at this stage.

The S&P 500 closed near flat up 0.11 per cent, the Nasdaq was the best performing major index closing up 0.23 per cent and the Dow bucked the trend and was the worst performer closing down 0.11 per cent.

Turning to US sectors, Communications and Energy were the best performing sectors closing up 0.71 per cent and 0.66 per cent respectively. The worst performing sector was Consumer Staples which closed down 1.1 per cent.

In company news Intel closed down 8.2 per cent after the company reported operating losses in its semiconductor manufacturing business.

In commodities news, gold continued its rally trading above the US$2300 level. At the close of US trading the gold price was at US$2318 per ounce. Oil hung onto recent gains and hovered around $US90 a barrel for most of the day as geopolitical concerns continued to impact traders. Iron ore fell below $US100 a tonne overnight to trade down around US$98 a tonne.

Futures

The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.3 per cent gain.

Currency

One Australian dollar at 7.25am was buying 65.62 US cents.

Commodities

Gold gained 1.61 per cent. Silver jumped 4.89 per cent. Copper rose 3.50 per cent. Oil added 0.49 per cent.

Figures around the globe

European markets closed higher. London’s FTSE added 0.03 per cent, Frankfurt gained 0.46 per cent, and Paris closed 0.29 per cent higher.

Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.97 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.22 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.18 per cent..

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 1.34 per cent lower at 7,782.54.

Ex-dividends
ARB Corporation (ASX:ARB) is paying 34 cents fully franked
Clime Capital (ASX:CAM) is paying 1.35 cents fully franked
Eureka Group Ltd (ASX:EGH) is paying 0.7 cents unfranked
Lindsay Australia (ASX:LAU) is paying 2.1 cents fully franked
Qualitas Re Income (ASX:QRI) is paying 1.1785 cents unfranked

Dividends payable
AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP)
Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX:BGA)
Coronado Global Resources Inc (ASX:CRN)
G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM)
Generation Development Group Ltd (ASX:GDG)
Lifestyle Communities Ltd (ASX:LIC)
Lycopodium Ltd (ASX:LYL)
Mader Group Ltd (ASX:MAD)
Peoplein Ltd (ASX:PPE)
Servcorp Ltd (ASX:SRV)
South32 Ltd (ASX:S32)
Supply Network Ltd (ASX:SNL)
Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX:WDS)

Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.

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