• US equity markets weaker as investors digested the latest inflation figures and a mixed bag of second quarter results from some major banks - Dow dropped -436-points or -0.98% to 44,023.29, with American Express Co (down -3.20%) and UnitedHealth Group Inc (-2.95%) both down ~3%. Nvidia Corp rallied +4.04% to a record closing high of US$170.70 and was the leading Dow component following news that the U.S. government plans to grant licenses for the chipmaker to sell its H20 graphics processing units in China.

On 7 July the AFR published a list of 37 Economists who had answered a poll on when the RBA would next cut rates. 32 of them thought that the RBA would cut on 8 July. Only 5 of them did not believe the RBA would cut on 8 July. I was one of them. The RBA did not cut.

US equity markets logged modest gains as investors continued to monitor trade headlines ahead of key inflation data and the beginning of second quarter earnings season tonight AEST - Dow rose +88-points or +0.20% Boeing Co rose +1.62% after a preliminary report was released over the weekend regarding the cause of last month's Air India crash that killed more than 250 people on board and on the ground and did not recommend actions to fix any safety issues for operators or manufacturers of the Boeing plane and GE Aerospace (+2.71%) engines. Chevron Corp (down -2.36%) and Procter & Gamble Co (-2.09%) fell over >2%.

US equity markets retreated on Friday (11 July) as President Trump’s threats of new tariffs against a host of U.S. trade partners unnerved investors, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq pulling back from record closing highs logged a day earlier - Dow fell -279-points or -0.63%, with Nike Inc (down -2.67%) and Visa Inc (-2.23%) falling over >2%.

US equity markets advanced, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting fresh record highs as investors continued to shrug off tariff-related concerns - Dow rose +192-points or +0.43%, with American Express Co (up +2.49%) the leading performer in the 30-stock index. Nvidia Corp rose +0.75% to settle with a closing market capitalisation above >US$4 trillion after breaching that level intra-session a day earlier.

US equity markets advanced, with the technology-centric Nasdaq climbing to a fresh record high as tariff and trade headlines remained in focus and as investors parsed meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June monetary policy meeting - Dow rose +218-points or +0.49% to 44,458.30, settling ~1% below its record closing high. Nvidia Corp rose +1.80% to US$162.88, pulling back from earlier highs that saw the chipmaker become the first ever company to achieve a market capitalisation of US$4 trillion. Nvidia needed to finish at or above US$163.93 to reach the $4 trillion milestone at the close. Nonetheless, the chipmaker’s closing market capitalisation of US$3.974 trillion was a record closing peak for any company. Amazon.com Inc +1.45% that its cloud division has developed hardware to cool down next-generation Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) that are used for artificial intelligence workloads. UnitedHeatlh Group Inc fell -1.56% to be the worst performing Dow component overnight following a report from the Wall Street Journal that ex-employees and medical professionals have been interviewed by Department of Justice investigators over a probe into the insurer's Medicare billing practices.

US equity markets settled little changed after another choppy session dominated by trade and tariff headlines - Dow fell -166-points or -0.37%, with JPMorgan Chase & Co (down -3.15%) and Nike Inc (-3.41%) down over >3%. Amazon.com Inc fell -1.84% as the eCommerce giant’s four-day "Prime Day" sale event kicked off overnight. Nvidia Corp rose +1.11% and continues to close in on becoming the first company ever to market capitalisation of US$4 trillion.

US equity markets fell sharply after resuming trading following the Independence Day holiday long weekend, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreating from record all-time highs as investors digested a flurry of headlines related to tariffs and global trade - Dow dropped -422-points or -0.94%,with Sherwin-Williams Co (down -2.18%) the worst performer in the 30-stock index, while seven other components fell over >1.5%. Nvidia Corp fell -0.69% to US$158.24 despite analysts at Citigroup lifting their target price to US$190 per share (from US$180 previously) and now calculating that the total addressable market for data-centre AI chips could be $563B by 2028 (versus a prior projection of US$500B).Citigroup believes sovereign AI, which refers to countries looking to build out their own AI infrastructure, could contribute “up to billions of dollars” to Nvidia’s top line in 2025 and will come to make up an even bigger portion of Nvidia’s business mix next year. Amazon.com Inc inched +0.03% higher and was the only member of the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ cohort of mega-capitalisation technology stocks to advance ahead of its annual “Prime Day” sale event kicking off tonight AEST (8 July). After sales hit an all-time high at last year’s event, Amazon has extended this year's sale to four days from two.

US equity and bond markets were CLOSED on Friday night AEST (4 July) for Independence Day.

For the shortened trading week, the Dow rallied +2.30%. The S&P 500 climbed +1.72% and the Nasdaq +1.62%

US equity markets advanced in an abbreviated trading session ahead of the Independence Day holiday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting fresh record closing highs for the fourth time in the last five days as investors a stronger-than-expected jobs report - Dow rose +334-points or +0.77% to 44,828.53, falling just short of logging its first record closing high since December. American Express Co (up +1.03%), investment banks Goldman Sachs Inc (+1.09%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (+1.86%) and Nvidia Corp (+1.33%) all hit record highs.