A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Ankur Banerjee:
It looks like we might be getting the Mark Zuckerberg v Elon Musk fight after all, just not in a cage. Meta Platforms plans to launch a microblogging app, Threads, challenging Musk just days after the Twitter executive chair announced a temporary cap on how many posts users can read on the site.
Musk and Facebook parent Meta CEO Zuckerberg have been egging each other into a mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas, with both billionaires trading jabs (online) last month.
Beyond Silicon Valley, markets seem content to take it easy with a light data calendar and a U.S. holiday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched higher, the dollar was firm, while the oil prices were steady.
Investors in Asia were mostly focused on will they or won’t they questions around yen intervention, which may continue to dog markets this week as the Japanese currency hangs around the key 145 per dollar threshold.
That line in the sand was briefly breached on Friday prompting a strong warning from Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki. Since then, the yen has stayed below 145 but remains perilously close enough to keep markets nervy.
Japan’s top financial diplomat Masato Kanda said on Tuesday authorities were in close contact with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other overseas officials almost every day on currencies.
The Reserve Bank of Australia chose to stand pat on interest rates after data last week showed consumer inflation slowed to a 13-month low in May. The Aussie dollar slid 0.3% after the policy decision to keep cash rate at 4.1%.
Economists, polled by Reuters ahead of the meeting, were split on the RBA’s decision, with 16 out of 31 expecting a hike and the rest forecasting the bank to stand pat.
Since a surprise pause in April and subsequent hikes in May and June, economists have been mostly divided in recent months over the RBA’s next move.
Key developments that could influence markets on Tuesday:
U.S. markets closed for Independence day
German import and export data for May
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Sam Holmes)
