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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
a listener production.
Tech boosts US stocks to a record close, but uncertainty remains over the Middle East conflict. The US has cancelled its peace talks trip and signs point to a flat start when our share market opens. Good morning, I'm Gillian Bowen. It's Monday, the 27th of April, and this is the morning edition of the ComSec Market Update.
Now, while it's a long weekend for New South Wales, the ACT and WA following Anzac Day on Saturday, the ASICS is open today.
Chapter 2: How did technology impact US stocks to reach a record close?
So the team and I are on deck bringing you our usual wrap and analysis of market action. James Gruber, however, is enjoying a day off. So it's just me and let's get into it. Well, as you know, for the past few Mondays, we've been bringing you an update on the weekend's developments when it comes to the US-Iran war.
So when markets closed in the US on Friday afternoon, so Saturday morning Australian time, there were hopes of peace talks. But Donald Trump then posted on social media that he'd cancelled a trip by two US envoys to Pakistan, claiming it involved too much travel and expense. And Iran's foreign minister had also earlier left Islamabad.
Chapter 3: What recent developments occurred regarding the US-Iran peace talks?
So another setback in peace prospects. The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. And a reminder, it normally carries one fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments through it. So then what's on the cards for the Australian share market when it opens? When the ASX futures were last trading, they were down just three points or 0.03%, so a flat start.
On Friday, to remind you, the ASX 200 closed down just 6.9 points to 8,786.5. It's lost 1.79% for the last five days, but it's virtually unchanged year to date. Okay, so let's check in on commodities and currencies. It was a volatile session on Friday for oil prices.
Traders were weighing supply disruptions against the potential restart of peace talks between the US and Iran, which we now know are off. Brent crude futures settled at $105.33 a barrel, rising 26 cents or about 0.3%. For the week, Brent gained about 16% and WTI rose nearly 13%. Copper futures edged down on Friday on worries about continued closures of the Strait of Hormuz.
Gold advanced on Friday, but lingering inflation concerns and the uncertain state of the US-Iran war kept markets on edge. Gold futures rising 0.4% to US$4,740.90 an ounce. Okay, taking a look at currencies, the Aussie dollar up 0.35% to 71.53 US cents. The euro was up 0.33% at 1.1721 US dollars. Against the Japanese yen, the US dollar was down 0.20% to 159.37 yen. Music
Okay, let's head to Wall Street. Friday session on the Dow Jones Index closed 0.16% lower. And for the week overall, it lost 0.4%. But the S&P 500 closed up 0.80% and gained 0.6% for the week. And the NASDAQ rallied 1.6% on Friday. The weekly gain there is 1.5%.
If we take a closer look at what happened there to deliver those record high closes for the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, well, reporting season is still underway and it will be this week too. Over one third of S&P 500 companies are due to post results.
And of course, ongoing uncertainty from the US-Iran war has been weighing on investors' minds, not only about the status of the fragile ceasefire, which had an impact at the start of last week, but also about whether another round of peace talks would occur and optimism surrounding that. So The S&P 500 and NASDAQ have now risen four weeks in a row.
Tech shares buoyed by strong results from Intel helped lift things on Intel. It surged 23.65% to close at a record $82.57 and was the best performer on the benchmark S&P index following a better than expected revenue forecast for the second quarter. This surge takes Intel past its dot-com era peak from the year 2000. Fellow chipmakers AMD and ARM both shot higher.
MegaCap NVIDIA climbed 4.32% and also closed at a record as it neared the US$5 trillion market valuation again. As for the underperforming sectors for the week, healthcare down 3.1%. financials, which were 1.9% lower, and real estate, which dropped 1.5%.
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