Here’s what my colleague, market strategist Mike “Willo” Wilson says happened while we were sleeping… The S&P 500 Index rose and US yields eased after a report showed US job openings fell in July to the lowest in 10 months, bolstering the case for a September rate cut. This would be the first of many if one Federal Reserve official had his way. The lower yield curve saw the dollar decline, helping Aussie and Kiwi to advance. Oil dropped on a report that OPEC+ will consider a fresh round of production increases when the group meets Sunday. The RBA says an interview with deputy governor Andrew Hauser will be published today. That may be more market moving than Australia’s trade balance and household spending data, which are also due. ASX futures speak to a positive start for local stocks. President Donald Trump’s assault on the Federal Reserve risks stoking inflation, curbing investment and undermining confidence in the US economy. For gold bulls, it’s a tantalizing scenario reinforcing a record-breaking rally that’s made the metal one of this year’s hottest assets. A gold bar at a smelter facility in La Paz, Bolivia. Photographer: Marcelo Perez del Carpio/Bloomberg Apple is planning to launch its own artificial intelligence-powered web search tool next year, stepping up competition with OpenAI and Perplexity AI. The company is working on a new system — dubbed internally as World Knowledge Answers — that will be integrated into the Siri voice assistant, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Conservative politician Anutin Charnvirakul is poised to become Thailand’s next prime minister via a lower house vote, having secured the backing of the largest party in parliament and fended off last-ditch efforts by a rival group to force a snap election. The message from China’s lavish military parade on Wednesday was unmistakable: Beijing has the weaponry, allies and ambition to shape a new global order, writes Bloomberg Opinion’s Karishma Vaswani. |