Morgans AM: Tuesday 15 August 2017

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets rallied and the greenback rebounded (dollar index up ~0.3%) as tensions between the US and North Korea seemingly cooled a little - Dow up +135-points or +0.62% (with the index now having gone 61-sessions without a move of 1% or more in either direction - the longest such streak since 1995) and the broader S&P500 +1.00% (information technology leading the index to its best single-session advance since April 24, with the energy the only sector to close in the red). The technology-centric NASDAQ rallied +1.34%, with all of the technology heavyweights posting solid gains (e.g. Tesla up +1.60%, Amazon +1.60%, Apple +1.50%, Alphabet +0.98%, Facebook +1.60% and Microsoft +1.50%). US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis stated that the current US administration would continue to pursue diplomatic resolutions with Pyongyang. The two U.S. officials wrote in a commentary piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that "the US has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea."