US Markets Pare Some Of Octobers Losses On Last Possible Days
A grim October ended in three straight overnights of gains on Wall Street meaning that November is off to a brighter start. The gains are mainly due to technology shares, from which recent earnings reports have helped all three major US indices to trim some of their October losses. Though the tech-heavy NASDAQ ended down 9.2% in October, which is the worst month posted for the index since 2008, it jumped up 2% in the final three days of October. The S&P 500 also posted its largest one-month drop in more than seven years (nearly 7% in October) but climbed 1.1% in the last three days. The Dow climbed 241 points, or 1%, to 25116, paring its monthly drop to 5.1%. The tech shares responsible for this brightness: Facebook, Netflix, Alphabet, and Amazon, who each added 3.5% to rebound from some of their October drops. Here’s to hoping upward trends continue in November.
The Aussie Dollar & Market
Based on the above progression on Wall Street (and a few other things), this week has been a relatively good one for Aussie market bulls and subsequently for the Aussie dollar which has officially surged past 72 US cents to a four-week high (72.13 to the USD at 9:40 AEDT). The ASX200 has also benefitted from brighter days in the US, delivering an opportunity of nearly 215 points for traders, based off last week’s lows. The risks to markets are still quite elevated, but lower volatility readings on the VIX have investors much calmer this week than they were this time last week.
The Australian 5G Ban On Chinese Tech Explained
This week marked the first time Australia’s chief cyber spy Mark Burgess publicly explained why Australia made the call back in August to block the Chinese telecom giants such as Huawei and ZTE from supplying equipment to the developing Australian 5G network. According to Burgess, the technology that China has developed is incredibly elaborate and successful but also frequently used to strictly monitor its own population. This makes it a bit difficult to trust internationally, particularly on a 5G network. 5G technology raises the stakes with greater connection speeds and fewer time delays, putting it at the top of other nations lists of assets desired for the functioning of society and economy (term: critical national infrastructure). In short, other nations would likely want to steal/infiltrate it. China is not too happy about these claims.
Volkswagon and Ford Team Up
Volkswagon and Ford: definitely an unexpected duo. According to a person familiar with the matter, the German and US automakers are in “exploratory talks” to jointly develop self-driving and electric vehicles in a far-reaching strategic alliance meant to save the companies billions of dollars. Spokespeople from both automakers are expected to provide an update on the progress of the talks before the end of the year.
“Fair Dinkum Power”
Yesterday Atlassian’s co-founder and co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes called Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s energy policy ‘bullshit’ and launched on Twitter his own new idea: the “Fair Dinkum Power” movement. His two hour long Twitter blast follows Morrison’s promise to lower Australians’ electricity prices by threatening energy companies with harsh new penalties. Though Cannon-Brookes spent time coming up with multiple logo options, the details on his proposed power plan are still undisclosed.
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