Originally published by Rivkin Securities
Overnight, US markets reacted positively to the progression of trade talks between China and the US over the weekend as the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices finished Monday’s trading session higher by 1%, 0.9% and 1.3% respectively. The Dow surged to 442 points an hour before market close then finished the session at 250 higher for the day as investor cautiousness took over. The S&P 500 index is now up 4% for 2018 after retracing to correction territory last month.
ASX futures were down 18 points at 8am AEDT indicating trade truce optimism has diminished marginally. Yesterday the strong market performance was led by gains from the banks and mining heavy weights Rio Tinto (AX:RIO) and BHP Billiton (AX:BHP). Today investors look to the RBA’s interest rate decision (expected to remain stagnant) as well as the release of the IPD/TIPP economic optimism index.