World Market Update 5/6/2021

Beijing today decided to suspend economic dialogue with Australia as talks between the two countries collapsed. Experts believe one of the reasons is that Australia was the first to ban China’s tech giant Huawei Technologies from its 5G network. Also, to add insult to injury, Australia called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, prompting a furious reaction from Beijing. The Australian dollar fell sharply today as a result of the suspension of talks between China and Australia, and was as low as 0.7701 to the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, European shares rose to near record highs Thursday, triggered by increasing confidence in economic recovery in Germany and other European countries.

To the charts now:

U.S. stocks:

Dow: +97.31 (34,230.34 USD)

S&P 500: +2.93 (4,167.59 USD)

Spot Gold: 1,793.90/ounce

U.S. dollar cross rates:

YEN: 109.3000

EURO: 0.8309

STERLING: 0.7193

SW FRANC: 0.9129

CAN: 1.2242

AUD: 1.2900

European Markets:

UK FTSE - 100: +16.84 (+0.24%, at 7,056.14 GBP)

FRANCE CAC - 40: +23.28 (+0.37%, AT 6,362.75 EUR)

GERMANY DAX - 30: +99.66 (+0.66%, at 15,270.44 EUR)