The US Dollar Index (DXY) continued its strengthening for a second day and briefly hovered around 98.20 during the Asian session, driven by hawkish comments from Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid. He emphasized that the Fed must maintain credibility in combating inflation, stating that inflation remains too high, and assessing that current monetary policy is "properly calibrated." However, this encouragement is met with growing expectations of an interest rate cut, coupled with the ongoing US government shutdown. The CME FedWatch tool now projects a 94% chance of a 25 bps cut in...
Wall Street's main indexes fell on Friday after Israel's deadly strike on Iranian nuclear facilities inflamed tensions in the oil-rich Middle East and battered risk sentiment across global markets. Israel has warned that the widescale strikes were the start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon. Iran has promised a harsh response. Oil prices surged nearly 7% on fears the conflict could disrupt crude supply from the Middle East. U.S. energy stocks rose in tandem, with Exxon (NYSE:XOM) up 1.7%. Airline stocks dropped as fuel costs could surge if supply...
US stocks fell on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down 0.7% and the Dow Jones down nearly 500 points, amid a flight to safe havens driven by rising tensions in the Middle East. Israel launched a preemptive strike on Iran, targeting a nuclear facility and vowing to continue operations until the threat is neutralized. Airline stocks fell sharply, with American Airlines down 4.8%, Delta Air Lines down 4.5% and United Airlines down 5%. Megacap technology stocks also fell, including Nvidia (-1.4%), Microsoft (-0.2%), Apple (-0.5%), Amazon (-1%), Meta (-0.4%), Alphabet (-1.1%), and Tesla...
The Hang Seng fell 143 points, or 0.6%, to close at 23,892 on Friday, extending losses for a second session as Wall Street futures slumped and global markets turned red following Israel's military strikes on Iran the previous day. Rising tensions in the Middle East added a new layer of uncertainty to already fragile global markets, which are still under pressure from President Trump's aggressive and unpredictable trade policies. The index moved away from a nearly three-month high, as most sectors declined. The technology index fell 1.7%, led by sharp declines in Horizon Robotics (-4.3%),...
Japan stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Paper & Pulp, Transport and Communication sectors led shares lower. At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.92%. The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Nexon Co Ltd (TYO:3659), which rose 8.37% or 220.00 points to trade at 2,850.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Bandai Namco Holdings Inc (TYO:7832) added 4.34% or 201.00 points to end at 4,829.00 and Aeon Co., Ltd. (TYO:8267) was up 3.85% or 165.00 points to 4,449.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were LY Corp (TYO:4689), which...
(Hong Kong) The escalating tensions in the Middle East have impacted the financial markets, with the Hang Seng Index opening lower by 75 points or 0.31%, standing at 23,959 points. Concurrently, the H-share index dropped by 41 points or 0.47%, reaching 8,688 points, while the technology index also experienced a decline of 50 points or 0.95%, settling at 5,280 points. In the tech sector, there was a general softening trend, with Tencent showing a minor increase of 0.1%, while Alibaba witnessed a decrease of 1.5%. Similarly, Meituan fell by 1.2%, Xiaomi Group dropped by 0.5%, and Kuaishou...
Japanese equities slipped on Friday despite Wall Street's gains, driven by cooling US inflation and anticipation of Federal Reserve rate cuts. The Nikkei 225 opened 42.84 points lower at 38,324.93. Investors are awaiting Japan's revised industrial production report for April; the preliminary reading showed a 0.70% increase year-over-year. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba believes there's a significant gap in trade talks with the US, and he has no immediate timeline for an agreement, according to Bloomberg News on Thursday. This comes ahead of his anticipated meeting with...
Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street following a batch of economic data that pointed toward a solid U.S. economy. Futures for Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 in Chicago were at 38,220 while their counterpart in Osaka last traded at 38,170 compared with the index's Thursday close of 38,173.09 Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index last traded at 24,178, compared with the HSI's last close of 24,035.38. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was also set to start the day higher, with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,605, compared to the index's close of...
US equites closed slightly higher on Thursday, as a rally in Oracle shares and cooling inflation offset lingering trade uncertainties. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and Nasdaq gained 0.2%, lifted by a 13% surge in Oracle shares following strong quarterly results and an upbeat forecast for cloud growth driven by AI demand. However, Boeing fell 4.7% after a deadly crash involving an Air India Dreamliner, weighing on the Dow, which closed 101 points higher. Economic data showed further signs of easing inflation, with the Producer Price Index rising just 0.1% in May, boosting hopes for a Federal...
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....