WALL STREET RALLY
Overnight on Wall Street, stocks and bonds rallied on optimism over the deal. The S&P 500 jumped 1.7 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 3.1 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the STOXX 600 both closed at record highs.
Beyond geopolitics, traders are also awaiting a press briefing from Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida to explain the central bank’s decision, which Governor Kazuo Ueda will miss due to medical treatment.
“We do not anticipate any major changes to the Bank’s assessment of current conditions,” analysts from Mitsubishi UFJ wrote in a research note.
“We expect Deputy Governor Uchida’s press conference, including the rationale he presents for the rate-hike decision, will be based largely on Governor Ueda’s Jun 3 speech,” the note added. “Mr Uchida is also likely to follow the governor’s remarks when discussing future policy decisions.”
The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was up 0.1 per cent at 99.75, firmly within the tight trading channel in which it has sat for the past three sessions.
The yield on the US 10-year Treasury bond was up 0.8 basis points at 4.475 per cent. Gold moved 0.4 per cent higher at US$4,324.32.
In early European trades, pan-region futures were flat, German DAX futures were 0.2 per cent lower, and FTSE futures were down 0.1 per cent.
In cryptocurrency markets, bitcoin was down 0.8 per cent at US$65,799.61, while ether slumped 2.1 per cent to US$1,762.15.
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