ECONOMY
India has raised tariffs on 28 items exported from the US with effect from Sunday in retaliation to America’s withdrawal of preferential access for Indian products from 5 June. The final notification of tariffs issued by the finance ministry late on Saturday night, minutes before the tariffs came into force, does not include one item that was there in the earlier list, artemia, a type of shrimp.
British companies look set to cut their investment by the most in 10 years in 2019 as the Brexit crisis drags on, weighing on future economic growth prospects, a survey showed on Monday.
Companies listed in Britain will be able to sell shares in China on Monday with the launch of a long-awaited London-Shanghai Stock Connect project that finance minister Philip Hammond called a chance to deepen “global connectivity”.
Power returned to much of Argentina and two neighboring countries following a massive blackout that left tens of millions in the dark on Sunday, but Argentine President Mauricio Macri said the cause of the “unprecedented” outage was still unclear.
Expectations of an interest rate cut at the Fed's June 18-19 meeting fell from 28.3% on Thursday to 21.7% according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. But bets of an easing at the July meeting remain high at 85%.
BONDS
The 10-year Treasury note yield +1.21% was virtually unchanged at 2.093% after coming off an intraday low of 2.058%. The benchmark maturity rose nearly a single basis points for the week.
The 2-year note yield +2.19%, sensitive to shifting expectations for interest-rate policy, was also mostly flat at 1.850%, but up 1.6 basis points this week.
The 30-year bond yield +0.70% fell 1.6 basis points to 2.591%, and was up 2.2 basis points for the week. Debt prices move in the opposite direction of yields.
The German 10-year government bond +0.00% yield fell 1.7 basis points to negative 0.26%.
Australian bond yields slipped to a record low last week as investors priced in further easing by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which already cut rates to a record low 1.25% earlier this month.
CURRENCY
On Monday, The dollar hovered near a two-week high early, as strong U.S. retail sales data tempered some of the fears about a sharp downturn in the world's largest economy.
The dollar index versus a basket of six major currencies was little changed at 97.509 after rising to 97.583 on Friday, its highest since June 3.
The euro was little changed at $1.1218 after shedding about 0.6% on Friday, when it fell to an eight-day trough of $1.1203.
The Australian dollar crawled up 0.1% to $0.6879 but remained within reach of a five-month low of $0.6862 set on Friday, when the currency retreated nearly 0.7%.
The dollar was flat at 108.570 yen after edging up 0.15% on Friday.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has set the Yuan reference rate at 6.8940 vs Friday's fix of 6.8937.
COMMODITY
On Monday , Oil prices rose after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington will take all actions necessary to guarantee safe navigation in the Middle East, as tensions mounted following attacks on tankers last week.
Brent futures rose 16 cents, 0.29% to $62.16 a barrel. They rose 1.1% on Friday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 10 cents, or 0.19%, at $52.59 a barrel. They rose 0.4% in the previous session.
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