US DOE gifts record-breaking loan to battery plants

The Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 rose Thursday, snapping three-day losing streaks as investors resumed buying tech stocks. The tech-heavy index rallied 0.95 per cent to 13,630.61, while the S&P 500 rose 0.37 per cent to 4,381.89 — both closing near session highs. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.81 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 33,946.71.

Investors snapped up some major tech stocks that got dinged this week. Tesla shares closed higher, despite falling earlier in the day, even after the second major Wall Street bank in as many days downgraded the high-flying retail trader darling. Shares have more than doubled this year.

Meanwhile, shares of Amazon were higher by more than 4 per cent. Microsoft rose 1.8 per cent. Apple hit a fresh all-time high late in the day, rising more than 1 per cent.

Elsewhere, Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems dropped more than 9 per cent after the company halted production in its Kansas facility. This follows a worker strike announcement, set to start Saturday. Separately, Boeing shares also dropped more than 3 per cent, weighing on the Dow.

In commodity news, the US Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office approves a record-breaking $9.2B loan to BlueOval SK LLC, a Ford and SK On joint venture, for the construction of three battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, enabling over 120 gigawatt hours of annual US battery production.

The World Bank's "Summit for a New Global Financial Pact" kicks off today in France, gathering world leaders with the aim of boosting crisis financing for low-income countries and progressing climate change initiatives currently struggling to advance under other bodies.

The Bank of England raised interest rates by 50 basis points on Thursday, its 13th consecutive increase. The decision follows this week’s latest inflation data for the UK, which showed a higher-than-expected reading of 8.7 per cent in May.

Overall, overnight US sectors were mixed. Consumer Discretionary was the stand out, whilst Real Estate was the worst.

Futures

The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.1 per cent fall

Currency

One Australian dollar at 7:20 AM was buying 67.56 US cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost 1.09 per cent. Silver has dropped 1.52 per cent. Copper has lost 0.26 per cent. Oil is down 4.16 per cent.

Figures around the globe

Across the Atlantic, European markets closed lower. London’s FTSE fell 0.76 per cent, Frankfurt lost 0.22 per cent while Paris closed 0.79 per cent lower.

Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.92 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite were closed for the Dragon Boat Festival.

Yesterday, the Australian sharemarket closed 0.89 per cent lower at 7,195.49.

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

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