CommSec

The US Federal Reserve issued its twice-yearly monetary policy report to Congress, saying that “The Committee's commitment to restoring price stability ...

The Aussie dollar fell from highs near US70.00 cents to lows near US69.00 cents and was near US69.30 cents at the US close. The Euro fell from highs near US$1.0530 to lows near US$1.0445 and was near US$1.0500 at the US close. Over the week gold fell by US$34.90 or 1.9%. The iron ore futures price fell by US$3.66 or 2.7% to US$131.38 a tonne. And the Japanese yen eased from near 133.90 yen per US dollar to JPY135.40 and was near JPY134.95 at the US close. And the US Nymex crude price fell by US$8.03 or 6.8% to US$109.56 a barrel. The Brent crude price fell by US$6.69 or 5.6% to US$113.12 a barrel. The gold futures price fell by US$9.30 or 0.5% to US$1,840.60 an ounce. Over the week Brent fell by 7.3% and Nymex fell by 9.2%. US long-term treasuries rose on Friday (yields lower). Manufacturing output unexpectedly fell 0.1% in May. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said on Friday that the Fed should be “cautious” about raising rates too much too fast. But while the German Dax index lifted 0.7% on Friday, the UK FTSE index fell by 0.4%. In London trade, shares of Rio Tinto fell by 4.9% and BHP fell by 3.3%. The Nasdaq fell by 4.8%. The Conference Board leading index fell by 0.4% in May as expected.