Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one thing: geopolitical headlines are still more "noise" than signals of a short-term surplus. As of 3:50 PM WIB, Brent was at $69.60/barrel (+0.29%) and WTI was at $64.83/barrel (+0.31%). The gains were moderate, but enough to keep prices near the psychological $70 level for Brent. From a geopolitical perspective, market focus is on the potential for escalation in the Middle East. Recent reports...
European markets closed lower on Friday, led by declines in the travel sector which was down 1.6% after the closure of Heathrow airport. The pan-European Stoxx 600, French CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 all closed around 0.6% lower, while the the German DAX shed 0.5%. The travel and leisure sector lost about 1.6% after London's Heathrow Airport closed on Friday following a fire at a nearby electrical substation. British Airways-owner International Airlines Groupwas trading around 1.9% lower. Basic resources including stocks such as ArcelorMittal and wood pulp processor Stora Enso were...
European markets provisionally closed lower on Friday, led by declines in the travel sector which was down 1.6% after the closure of Heathrow airport. The pan-European Stoxx 600 and French CAC 40 were both about 0.6% lower by 4.40 p.m. London time, while the the German DAX shed 0.5%. London's FTSE 100 was about 0.6% lower. The travel and leisure sector lost about 1.6% after London's Heathrow Airport closed on Friday following a fire at a nearby electrical substation. British Airways-owner International Airlines Group was trading around 1.9% lower. Basic resources — including stocks such...
U.S. stocks plunged on Friday, putting the S&P 500 on track to extend its slide since late February that has been fueled by trade policy turmoil, recession fears and a rollover in megacap technology stocks. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, putting the index on track for its first five-week decline in more than two years. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 302 points, or 0.7%. Traders had been bracing for a potentially volatile session on Friday with so-called "quadruple witching" — when stock options, index futures and single-stock futures expire. Goldman...
The STOXX 50 fell 0.5%, and the STOXX 600 dropped 0.3% on Friday, extending losses from the previous session as concerns over the economic outlook continued to weigh on investor sentiment. The U.S. is set to impose retaliatory tariffs on April 2, while the European Union's retaliatory measures have been delayed until mid-April. Travel and leisure shares were among the worst performers after London's Heathrow Airport was forced to close Friday due to a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation. Meanwhile, traders were closely watching a vote by Germany's upper house on...
The Hang Seng plunged 530 points, or 2.2%, to close at 23,690 on Friday (3/21), marking its second straight decline amid sharp declines across all sectors. The index fell 1.1% for the week, extending its decline to two weeks, as rising profit-taking in technology stocks and caution ahead of upcoming Chinese corporate earnings weighed on sentiment. Semiconductor Manufacturing dropped 7.1% to a one-month low, while Kuaishou Tech (-5.4%), Alibaba Group (-3.5%), and Tencent (-2.0%) also fell sharply. Consumer, property and financial stocks also fell, as China's newly announced "special action...
Japan stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Manufacturing and Services sectors led shares lower. At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.51%. The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mercari Inc (TYO:4385), which rose 7.45% or 182.50 points to trade at 2,633.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (TYO:8306) added 5.72% or 120.50 points to end at 2,226.00 and DeNA Co Ltd (TYO:2432) was up 4.08% or 137.00 points to 3,497.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were SUMCO Corp. (TYO:3436),...
Hong Kong stocks lost 283 points or 1.2 to 23,929 in Friday morning trade, marking their second straight session of decline as all sectors retreated. Sentiment remained weak following a drop on Wall Street overnight, as traders cautiously digested the latest U.S. economic data amid concerns over President Trump's tariffs. Meanwhile, uncertainty over the timing and scale of Beijing's latest plan to boost consumption prompted investors to move away from riskier assets. Among the early laggards were CK Asset Holdings (-5.7%), KE Holdings (-3.7%), Innovent Biologics (-3.6%), and Semiconductor...
The Nikkei 225 Index gained 0.5% to surpass 37,900, while the broader Topix Index rose 0.4% to 2,807 in post-holiday trade on Friday. Japanese stocks advanced as they caught up with global market gains, following the US Federal Reserve's signal of two interest rate cuts this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell also reassured markets that tariff-driven inflation is likely "transitory." Both the Nikkei and Topix are on track to climb over 2% and 3%, respectively, for the week. In economic data, Japan's core inflation slowed to 3% in February from 3.2% in January but still exceeded forecasts of...
Gold rises in the early Asian trade. There's a broad commodities uptrend, driven by macro uncertainty, a weaker dollar, and persistent demand for "hard" assets, says Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst...
Oil extended declines after OPEC+ agreed to a bigger-than-expected production increase next month, raising concerns about oversupply just as US tariffs fan fears about the demand outlook.
Brent...
The Japanese Yen (JPY) weakened against its US counterpart and reversed part of Friday's recovery from the lowest level since July 23 following Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda's remarks....