Gillian Bowen

Lots of AI-driven developments for investors to digest this week.

So if we look at the Aussie futures, our share market looks like it's heading for a strong jump at the open.

Futures are up 1.5% or 129 points.

As for yesterday, Thursday, the ASX 200 closed lower.

It dropped 21.2 points or 0.24%.

to 8,665.8.

It's now fallen for eight straight sessions.

That's the longest losing streak we've seen since 2018.

Eight of 11 sectors rose, led by energy, which was up 1.4%.

Consumer staples were down 5%.

The index has lost 1.45% for the last five days, but it's finished the month up 2.2%.

And James, I think we should also now get a check in relation to commodities.

I was sitting at my desk yesterday afternoon when an alert came through about Brent crude futures topping 126 US dollars, but it's pulled back a bit since then.

What's the latest?

All right, let's have a look at currencies.

They were higher against the US dollar.

One Australian dollar is buying 71.99 US cents.

The euro is worth 1.1739 US dollars, while one US dollar is buying 156.41 Japanese yen.

The big news overnight was that Japan intervened to prop up the yen, its first official intervention in nearly two years.

And that led to a 2.5% bounce in the yen.