Headlines:

Markets:

• USD leads, NZD lags on the day
• European equities lower; S&P 500 futures up 0.2%
• US 10-year yields up 0.6 bps to 4.210%
• Gold down 1.3% to $2,413.68
• WTI crude up 0.1% to $80.88
• Bitcoin flat at $63,979

The session started with a quieter mood initially, before a widespread of tech outages were reported across major networks around the globe. It started with Microsoft saying that it had some issues with its cloud system and that grounded several flights from smaller airlines.

Eventually, the world would soon realise that it was much a bigger problem as banks, media outlets, airlines, and pretty much all services with Microsoft-related systems were all down. Even trading brokerages were affected as we got to the European market open.

Microsoft said it had to do with a CrowdStrike update which was flawed, causing an error in its systems.

In any case, the chaos that ensued saw stocks sell off for bit in Europe before calmer heads prevailed. S&P 500 futures were up 0.2% before falling by 0.4%, then now recovering to be up by 0.2% again. European equities saw red at the open and didn’t really recover too much though, as tech shares are the ones leading the bounce.

The moves there didn’t quite translate to much action in major currencies though. FX was quieter as the dollar is holding steady ahead of the final stretch of the week.

EUR/USD is down 0.1% to 1.0890 while GBP/USD keeps with the rejection of 1.3000 to be down 0.2% to 1.2915 on the day. USD/JPY saw some light pushing and pulling but is now flattish at around 157.40 levels.

Well, as the global IT hiccup looks to have come and gone, the focus turns back towards whether Wall Street will stick to the selloff seen in the last two days to wrap up the week.