Mark Lister

Other markets pretty solid too.

Most of those are still below their peak that we saw from January, February.

It's only the US that has really rebounded and taken on new highs, but some of those other markets are very close to where they started, so it's been a strong recovery in most places.

Not quite so much here in New Zealand.

The local NZX 50 was actually down 2.1% this week, so it's still down almost 5% this year, and 6.2% below where it got to in January.

So we haven't seen that same recovery yet.

However, it was a very strong night on Friday night in the US.

That was when we got news that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen, and we were closed when that happened.

So we might play a bit of catch-up when we open on Monday morning.

Same with Australia.

However, it all depends what sort of news we see between now and then.

It's been a really busy period.

We got those positive signs of resolution last week, and on Friday during the US trading session, that's when we got the reports that the Strait would reopen and would remain open.

for the period of the ceasefire.

However, it was only a day later on Saturday when Iran came out and said it had actually reimposed the closure because the US didn't meet all of its obligations.

So, geez, I cannot keep up and I'm not even going to try and speculate on what might happen next because in the short period between me recording this, then editing it, then publishing it,

Something else might happen, so we'll wait and see.

Anyway, interest rates, they slipped back a little bit last week as well as some of the tensions eased.

The US 10-year Treasury yield fell from 4.32 to 4.25.

Here in New Zealand, our five-year swap rate ended the week six basis points lower at 3.91%.