Oil headed for its biggest weekly drop since June, as traders assessed that US efforts to end the war in Ukraine would not impact supplies, even as Washington imposed sanctions on India for importing Moscow's crude. West Texas Intermediate crude traded below $64 a barrel, down more than 5% this week, while Brent closed near $66. The US benchmark has declined for the past six days, marking its worst decline since 2023. US President Donald Trump, who has set a Friday deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, has said he is willing to meet with Vladimir Putin, although the Russian leader...
The US Dollar Index (DXY), a measure of the value of the US dollar (USD) against a basket of six global currencies, strengthened slightly to around 98.15, ending two consecutive days of declines during Asian trading hours on Friday (August 8th). Federal Reserve Chairman Alberto Musalem is scheduled to speak later on Friday. The DXY strengthened after Federal Reserve (Fed) Governor Christopher Waller reportedly emerged as a leading candidate to replace embattled Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Waller argued that the US central bank could "view" the inflationary impact of tariffs as transitory....
The Australian dollar (AUD) weakened against the US dollar (USD) on Friday (August 8), after three days of gains. The AUD/USD pair weakened as traders priced in a greater than 92% probability of a 25 basis point interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) next week, which would lower the cash rate to 3.60%. The likelihood of an RBA rate cut increased as core inflation eased to 2.7% in June, well below the RBA's 2-3% target, along with rising unemployment and slowing wage growth. Supporting this outlook, Australia's Trade Surplus widened to $5,365 million (month-on-month) in...