Friday 21st June 2019

The market continues to respond to the Dovish Fed statement yesterday, with a rally in US equities, falls in Treasury yields and a fall in the US dollar. NAB’s Alex Stanley says the market is now looking to a 50 point cut, whilst closer to home NAB has brought forward the expected date of the next rate cut from the RBA. There were no moves from the Bank of Japan or the Bank of England, but in Japan, at least, the talk is of the need for more stimulus. There’s also been a sharp increase in oil prices, as Iran shoots down a US military drone, with the US President saying ‘Iran made a very big mistake’, later adding that perhaps they didn’t mean to do it, and maybe it was a mistake. The incident doesn’t seem to have had any contagion beyond oil.