The headline return to expansion is unlikely to shift RBA rate expectations much given it was driven by staffing rather than demand, with new orders now contracting for a fourth straight month and backlogs being run down rather than rebuilt. The sharpest signal for markets is the confidence collapse to a two-and-a-half-year low, which points
The services sector in Australia moved into expansion territory in June, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Friday with a services PMI score of 50.5. That’s up from 48.7 in May and it moves above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. Some companies reported that rising staffing levels had
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The June employment report highlighted a widening divergence between payroll growth and household employment metrics. While the establishment survey pointed to a cooled hiring landscape, wage growth remained steady, and the underemployment rate improved slightly. Metric Consensus forecast Actual Prior month actual Change in non-farm payrolls 113k 57k 129k (revised) Unemployment rate 4.3% 4.2% 4.3%
American officials were worried that Israel was plotting to kill Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the parliament, during ceasefire negotiations in April. The NYT reports. Fearful that an Israeli assassination effort would doom the negotiations, the United States, according to some of the officials, went so far as
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At first glance, the decline in the unemployment rate to 4.2% appeared positive. However, this is not an unambiguous sign of improvement. The drop in unemployment was accompanied by a marked decline in labor force participation. The participation rate fell to 61.5%, reaching its lowest level in more than five years. This means that some
Yesterday, the gold buyers pushed the price above the 100 and 200 hour MAs. I wrote about it in a post outlining the bullish tilt: I ended that post saying the following: “If buyers can defend that support and extend the rally above today’s high at $4,115.67, it could trigger another wave of short covering
The June non farm payrolls report did not prove the US economy is breaking. It did something more important for markets: it showed the labor market is not hot enough to force the Fed’s hand. Non-Farm Payrolls rose just 57k, far below expectations of 114k, while May was revised down from 172k to 129k. That
Cyprus’ consumer price inflation accelerated in June to the highest level in more than two-and-a-half years, preliminary data from the statistical office showed on Thursday. The consumer price index climbed 3.2 percent year-on-year in June, faster than the 2.6 percent increase in May. Moreover, this was the highest inflation rate since October 2023, when prices
Strong start fades as macro pressures dominate Ether began 2026 on a relatively constructive footing as optimism surrounding Ethereum’s technological roadmap and expectations of increasing institutional adoption initially helped support prices. In late January the fourth quarter of 2025 sell-off resumed with the successful implementation of the Pectra upgrade, which improved validator efficiency, wallet functionality
2026.07.02 2026.07.02 Pound Holds Steady as BoE Focuses on Inflation. Forecast as of 02.07.2026 Dmitri Demidenkohttps://www.litefinance.org/blog/authors/dmitri-demidenko/ The Bank of England has succeeded in bringing down inflation while also reducing expectations of further increases in the repo rate, weakening the pound. However, policymakers are now highlighting the risks of a renewed surge in consumer prices, providing fresh
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Fintech can be complex and Thailand’s largest asset-freeze dispute is becoming more than a legal story. For investors, FX operators, fintech firms, and regional banks, the case raises a practical question: can ordinary pooled-payment infrastructure become a regulatory risk if enforcement agencies trace funds backward through shared settlement accounts? Key takeaways for investors watching Thailand’s
Japan may not have spent a dollar today, but it may have achieved one of the key goals of intervention anyway. USD/JPY plunged from 162.59 to below 161.30, a move large enough to trigger immediate speculation that Tokyo had stepped into the market. There is no confirmation of actual intervention yet, but that may be
So far, fundamentals have been supportive of a weaker Japanese yen, in line with softer oil prices, where benchmark crude oil, Brent and WTI have fallen to below $75 per barrel, keeping a lid on the Japanese inflation trend, in turn, reducing the hawkish rhetoric from the Bank of Japan (BoJ). All these factors allow
Switzerland’s consumer price inflation eased marginally in June after remaining stable in the previous month, the Federal Statistical Office reported on Thursday. The consumer price index climbed 0.5 percent yearly in June as expected, slower than the 0.6 percent steady increase in May. Prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to decline by 1.2 percent,
