Morning report (4 June)

Nico Kelder, economist at the Efficient Group says the currency pulled itself back from the losses made on Wednesday gaining around 1% yesterday.

The bond market traded sideways, probably waiting for next week’s MPC meeting. Commodity prices dropped yesterday, gold (0.6%) and platinum (1.3%) mainly to a slightly stronger dollar while movements on oil, down 1.3%m, was caused by news that OPEC will raise production by 2 million barrels per day with a further increase of half a million barrels in August.

European markets traded slightly higher, the DAX gaining the most jumping 0.7%. US markets was not as positive and declined significantly. Markets in the Far East shrugged this off and are trading slightly higher this morning.

We expect local equities to trade lower on the back of the continue strength of the currency and generally weaker international markets.