The Japanese Yen (JPY) continues to struggle to attract meaningful buyers and held near a three-week low against its US counterpart heading into the European session on Tuesday. Firming expectations that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will keep short-term interest rates unchanged later this week, coupled with a positive risk tone, continued to undermine the JPY's safe-haven appeal. Moreover, bets for a less dovish Federal Reserve (Fed) continued to support a pickup in the US Treasury bond yields, which turned out to be another factor weighing on the lower-yielding JPY. However, JPY market players...
Oil prices nudged lower on Tuesday as China's economic data renewed demand concerns, while investors remained cautious ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 11 cents at $70.60 a barrel at 0802 GMT, while Brent crude futures eased 2 cents to $73.89 a barrel. Prices were "weighed on by profit-taking after last week's 6% rally and a batch of disappointing Chinese economic data yesterday," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said. On Monday, prices fell from multi-week highs on unexpected weakness in consumer spending data from...
Gold prices slide ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting, with traders cautiously waiting for cues on the U.S. central bank's outlook for 2025. Futures trade 0.4% lower at $2,652.75 a troy ounce. A widely anticipated 25-basis-point rate cut is already fully priced into markets, according to analysts, but further cuts are less certain. Meanwhile, U.S. PMI data showed the services sector rose at a faster-than-expected pace. "The resilience of the U.S. economy supports our view that the Fed's 2025 rate cutting cycle is likely to be shallow," ANZ Research analysts say. "We expect a...