Morning Briefing: Markets mixed on Trump, North Korea

Markets mixed on Trump, North Korea

Markets are watching political issues Monday with Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, North Korea’s latest missile test, and the UK general election campaign all being weighed.

Asian indexes closed mostly higher despite North Korea testing another missile over the weekend. Markets are also digesting Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia which included the signing of a new arms deal. Hong
Kong and Sydney were the best performers of the session Monday.

European markets are mixed. Eurozone finance chiefs meet today to discuss debt relief for Greece. London’s FTSE is higher despite polls showing a narrowing of the lead for the Conservative party ahead of the general election on June 8.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open flat.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,804.84 (+0.69 per cent)	+1.25 per cent	+18.88 per cent
TSX Composite	15,458.46 (+1.19 per cent)	-1.00 per cent	+11.06 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,497.01 (+0.31 per cent)	+5.33 per cent	+21.73 per cent
German DAX	12,589.58 (-0.39 per cent)	+4.49 per cent	+26.96 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,411.24 (+0.22 per cent)	-1.60 per cent	+10.82 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,678.28 (+0.45 per cent)	+5.68 per cent	+17.58 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
53.98 (+0.69 per cent)	50.69 (+0.72 per cent)	1255.70 (+0.17 per cent)	U$0.7397
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7455

World’s largest tech fund nears $100 billion

The world’s largest private equity fund has reached $93 billion over the weekend. The fund, backed by Softbank and Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign fund, will invest in technology innovations. Apple is also among
the investors.

The Vision Fund of Japan’s Softbank Group said in a statement: "The next stage of the Information Revolution is under way, and building the businesses that will make this possible will require unprecedented large-scale, long-term investment.”

The fund expects to hit $100 billion within 6 months and will invest in tech firms at all stages but focusing on investments of $100 million and more.