Stephen Miran, a Federal Reserve governor whose term ends at the end of January, said Thursday that he is looking for 150 basis points of interest-rate cuts this year to boost the U.S. labor market. Miran told Bloomberg Television's Surveillance program that Fed officials had room to further reduce rates given his view that underlying inflation was likely running at 2.3%. "I'm looking for about a point and a half of cuts. A lot of that is driven by my view of inflation," Miran said. "Underlying inflation is running within noise of our target, and that's a good indication of where overall...
Oil prices rose in Asian trade on Tuesday, recovering a small portion of recent losses as traders remained on edge over slowing demand amid a rapidly escalating U.S.-led trade war. Oil prices had slumped to a four-year low in recent sessions, after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled steep reciprocal tariffs on several major economies. Trump's tariffs are set to take effect from Wednesday. A particular point of concern for oil markets is growing trade tensions between China and the U.S., after Beijing retaliated against Trump's latest tariffs and vowed to "fight to the end" if the...
The US dollar index slipped to around 103 on Tuesday, trimming recent gains as persistent trade uncertainties weighed on the broader economic and inflation outlook. President Donald Trump denied rumors of a potential pause in his sweeping tariff measures but expressed a willingness to enter negotiations with trade partners. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added that nearly 70 countries have reached out to the White House seeking tariff talks. However, tensions escalated as Trump threatened China with an additional 50% tariff if Beijing fails to remove its levies on US imports. In response,...
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) US Crude Oil prices attract some buyers on Tuesday following the previous day's US tariffs-led volatile price swings and currently trade just below mid-$61.00s, up over 1% for the day. The US Dollar (USD) attracts fresh sellers and stalls a two-day-old recovery from a multi-month low amid bets that a tariffs-driven US economic slowdown might force the Federal Reserve (Fed) to resume its rate-cutting cycle soon. This, in turn, is seen benefiting USD-denominated commodities and lending some support to Crude Oil prices. Apart from this, the uptick could be...
USD/CHF started Tuesday's Asian session (08/4) slightly lower, after a wild trading day on Monday, which saw it swing in the range of 0.8450–0.8673, and ended almost unchanged. At the time of writing, the major was trading at 0.8588, down 0.02%. The currency pair was trading near 0.8588 amid mixed sentiment, with investors eyeing US CPI as the next catalyst for direction The market mood was mixed, with one of the three US indices posting a positive day, while the Volatility Index (VIX) ended at 46.98, its highest level since March 2020. Tariffs continued to be the main driver, stoking...
Oil prices plunged 2% to a 4-year low on Monday on concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump's latest trade tariffs could push economies around the world into recession and dent global demand for energy. Brent crude futures fell $1.37, or 2.1%, to settle at $64.21 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $1.29, or 2.1%, to settle at $60.70. That pushed both crude benchmarks, which fell about 11% last week, to their lowest closes since April 2021. The trading session was marked by extreme volatility, with prices dropping more than $3 a barrel intraday overnight and...
Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda stated that achieving 2% inflation is getting closer, although real inflation remains low. Ueda emphasized that the BOJ will continue to raise interest rates...
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) maintained its cash rate at 4.1% during its April meeting, holding borrowing costs unchanged after slashing 25 bps in the February meeting, aligning with market...