Key funda events from the US session - ANZ

Analysts at ANZ offered the highlights from the US session.

Key Quotes:

"Overnight President Barack Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton to be the Democrats’ nominee for the upcoming Presidential election. He said on Thursday: “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office”.

"Initial claims fell 4k to 264k last week and is consistent with a healthy labour market. This week Fed Chair Yellen referred to this key and timely labour market indicator as sending a positive signal on the US labour market and as a counter to the weak pulse provided by the May non-farm payrolls report.

April Wholesale inventories rose 0.6% and sales rose 1.0%. That pushed the inventory-sales ratio down fractionally to 1.35 vs 1.36. At the very margin that is encouraging, but the ratio is still quite elevated – suggesting a weak outlook for manufacturing."