Morning Briefing: Markets gain despite multiple concerns

Markets gain despite multiple concerns

The markets have begun a new trading week following a weekend which brought several concerns.
A protectionist vibe to the G7 meeting in Italy, a new missile test from North Korea and the massive cyber attack which has hit more than 150 countries are all in focus.

There are also some positives, not least a 2.5 per cent gain for oil prices following comments from Saudi Arabia and Russia suggesting that the output cuts will be extended until March next year.

Asian indexes closed mostly higher despite weak retail and production output data from China. Tokyo was weaker but slipped just 0.07 per cent.

European markets are trending lower following an initial jump following regional election results in Germany which supported Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party.

New French president Emmanuel Macron heads to Germany Monday for talks with Mrs Merkel. He will call for greater integration of the EU nations including a single Eurozone budget and a drive to ‘buy-EU’ among member states.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open higher. Canadian existing home sales data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,896.61 (-0.11 per cent)	+2.17 per cent	+19.17 per cent
TSX Composite	15,537.88 (-0.08 per cent)	+0.02 per cent	+13.01 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,439.40 (+0.05 per cent)	+1.53 per cent	+21.19 per cent
German DAX	12,756.58 (-0.11 per cent)	+5.35 per cent	+28.17 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,399.19 (+0.41 per cent)	-2.50 per cent	+10.55 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,869.85 (-0.07 per cent)	+8.37 per cent	+21.07 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
52.07 (+2.40 per cent)	49.03 (+2.49 per cent)	1230.70 (+0.24 per cent)	U$0.7336
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7438

Google firm partners with Lyft for driverless cars pilot

Google parent Alphabet has announced a partnership between its automated vehicle unit Waymo and ride-share firm Lyft.

The two firms will work together to bring the technology to more cities faster. Lyft operates in around 300 US cities. The deal will enable both to compete with Uber which has launched its own driverless vehicle program.

Neither Waymo or Lyft have given much detail of their partnership agreement according to the New York Times.