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...
U.S. trade officials plan to meet with their Chinese counterparts within the next two or three months to discuss the future of economic relations between the two countries, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday. The announcement comes a day after the Trump administration extended a 90-day pause on implementing higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. Speaking in an interview on Fox Business Network's "Kudlow," Bessent indicated that any potential reduction in tariffs on China would require substantial progress on addressing fentanyl flows. "The U.S. will need to see months, if not...
Core consumer prices in the US, which exclude food and energy, rose by 0.3% from the previous month in July of 2025, picking up from the 0.2% increase in the previous month for the sharpest increase since January. The result was in line with the median consensus from markets. Prices accelerated for transportation services (0.8% vs 0.2% in June), medical care services (0.8% vs 0.6%), and rebounded sharply for new vehicles (0.5% vs -0.7%). Source: Trading Economics
The very data that caused President Donald Trump to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he did not like the July employment report, calling it "rigged," is being taken as serious evidence by Federal Reserve officials of a slowing economy and as a justification for the interest rate cuts Trump wants. "The latest employment report confirmed some of the signs of fragility and reduced dynamism in the labor market," Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, a Trump appointee, said in a Saturday speech that elaborated on how the latest jobs numbers and revisions to prior months' data...
US President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is nominating economist E.J. Antoni as the new commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10 days after firing the previous head following weak labor market results, accusing Antoni of manipulating the figures without evidence. Antoni currently serves as chief economist at the influential conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. He has criticized the BLS, the Labor Department's statistical arm, whose monthly data on labor market conditions and inflation is consumed by a global audience of economists, investors, business...
On April 6, the Sunday after Donald Trump announced the "Liberation Day" tariffs, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined the president on his flight back to Washington from Mar-a-Lago. Bessent wanted to discuss damage control. At the time, photos of Trump in the Rose Garden waving a placard proclaiming tariffs as high as 49% had spooked investors worldwide, triggering the biggest two-day stock selloff since the pandemic. "We are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market for capital investment," billionaire...
President Donald Trump on Monday delayed high U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods from snapping back into place for another 90 days, a White House official told CNBC. Those tariffs were set to resume Tuesday. But Trump signed an executive order hours beforehand that extends the deadline until mid-November, according to the official. The delay was the expected outcome from the latest round of talks between U.S. trade negotiators and their Chinese counterparts, which took place in Stockholm in late July. If the deadline were not extended, then U.S. duties on China would have shot back up to where...
Barrick Mining CEO Mark Bristow said on Monday that the gold industry is awaiting clarity from the White House regarding potential U.S. tariffs on gold bars, but added that, regardless of the outcome, the impact on miners would be minimal. According to a ruling published on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service's website on Friday, Washington may place the most widely traded gold bullion bars in the U.S. under country-specific import tariffs. A White House official later told Reuters it would issue an executive order "clarifying misinformation". The ruling has disrupted global...
U.S. President Donald Trump avoided a question on Monday about whether he would extend an August 12 deadline for higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, saying, "we'll see what happens," as he lauded China's cooperation in talks with the U.S. "We've been dealing very nicely with China. As you have probably heard, they have tremendous tariffs that they're paying to the United States of America," Trump said at a news conference at the White House. "They've been dealing quite nicely," he said, adding that he had a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. A tariff truce between...
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....