Market Update & Important Indicators:
The S&P 500 advanced Monday, led higher by shares of health-care and consumer discretionary companies, building on last week's broad gains ahead of a historic U.S.-North Korea summit. The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung between gains and losses before adding 0.3%. The S&P 500 advanced 0.3%, following gains across Asian and European markets. The Nasdaq Composite rose less than 0.3%. Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors posted gains. The Russell 2000 index climbed 0.3%. Macroeconomic news will take centre stage this week, with the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan all meeting, likely offering important clues on the path of monetary policy. The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates when it meets this week and update its projections for the years ahead while investors will watch closely for the ECB's stance on winding down its bond-buying program. For now though, markets have returned to a lower-volatility environment, one in which equity indexes slowly march higher, he said. It is a reversion to the mood that permeated markets late 2017 and early 2018. The US Gold Price gained 0.2% to record $1300 US$/Oz.
European stocks rose as Italian shares made gains on government assurances about the country's future in the euro. The Stoxx Europe 600 lifted 0.8%, or 3.11 points, to 388.23, while Germany's DAX was up 0.7 and France's CAC 40 rose 0.5%. Milan's FTSE MIB advanced 3.5%, with Italian banks leading the way after Italy's new economic minister pledged that the country would stay in the common currency.
Asian markets Monday were mostly higher outside Shanghai ahead of a highly anticipated summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore. Tuesday's meeting will be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8%, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4%, although Shanghai stocks fell 0.8%. Investors were also left assessing the fallout from a weekend summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, which reignited some investor worries about trade tensions and important geopolitical relationships.
Australia's markets were closed Monday for the Queen's Birthday holiday.
Base metal prices had mixed performance on the London Metal Exchange. The 3-month copper contact that declined 0.9% to 7,256/t whilst tin fell 0.2% to 21,260/t. The price of aluminium gained 0.3% to 2,303/t while nickel lost 0.9% to 15,222/t. Zinc gained 0.2% to 3,232/t.
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