James Gruber

British heavyweight banks such as Barclays and Lloyds fell 3% and 4% respectively, as the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces calls to step down.

A 6% fall in Munich Re weighed on the insurance sector after the German reinsurer posted disappointing property and casualty revenue in the first quarter.

Shares of Bayer jumped almost 4% after the German firm reported a better-than-expected quarterly operating profit.

It's now time for the watch list.

In Australia, we have earnings updates from CBA, Aristocrat Leisure and Ascent.

There's also the release of the Wage Price Index for the March quarter.

In the US, Cisco reports earnings.

There's also the Purchasing Price Index or PPI for April with an increase of 0.5% month-on-month tipped.

And now it's time for our One More Thing segment.

Australia has the highest cash rates among developed market peers.

Our 4.35% rate is well above America's 3.64%, the UK's 3.75%, Germany's 2%, and New Zealand's 2.25%.

Why are our rates high?

Well, because we seem to have more of an inflation issue, and on this, some question the three rate cuts handed down last year when inflation remained above the RBA's target.

And that's it for today.

The ComSec Media and Markets team is monitoring developments on today's local trading session, so check out our afternoon episode of the podcast for all the key updates.

I'm James Gruber.

Have a great day.

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Hello, good morning.