Investment markets and key developments over the past week

Shares had a rough week as Greek worries continued to weigh, the back-up in global bond yields resumed and worries about a Fed rate hike continued. US shares fell 0.7%, Eurozone shares fell 1.7% and Japanese shares lost 0.5%. Chinese shares were the exception bouncing 8.9% after the previous week’s softness. Australian shares fell 4.8% on the back of the weak global lead, messy Australian economic data and the RBA’s failure to reinstate an explicit easing bias. While global shares are down less than 2% from their recent high, Australian shares have come down by around 8% since their April high. Commodity prices generally fell and the $A fell slightly. (VIEW LINK)