Oil prices fell on Friday (December 19th) and are expected to post a second straight weekly decline as potential oversupply and the prospect of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal outweigh concerns over disruptions caused by a Venezuelan oil tanker blockade. Brent crude futures fell 17 cents, or 0.28%, to $59.65 a barrel at 0915 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 31 cents, or 0.55%, to $55.84. On a weekly basis, Brent and WTI benchmarks fell 2.4% and 2.8%, respectively. Analysts widely project a global oil oversupply next year, driven by increased production from the...
Iran launched more than 100 drones toward Israel early Friday after an overnight Israeli missile attack on the country killed at least three of its senior military leaders. "We can now confirm that the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, the Commander of the IRGC, and the Commander of Iran's Emergency Command were all killed in an Israeli attack on Iran," Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman Effie Defrin said. "Iran launched about 100 UAVs toward Israel, which we are working to intercept." Rocket sirens sounded in northern Jordan as Jordanian state media reported the country had...
Israel launched widescale strikes against Iran on Friday, saying it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders and that this was start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon. Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of retaliatory missile and drone strikes. Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards corps said its top commander, Hossein Salami, was killed and state media reported the unit's...
The Israeli Air Force conducted a strike in Iran on Thursday, according to two sources with knowledge of the operation. It's not yet clear what Israel is targeting, but explosions were reported in Tehran. Why it matters: Israel is directly attacking its biggest and best-armed adversary, without clear backing from the U.S. President Trump publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites on Thursday, saying he still believed a nuclear deal was possible. It's not clear whether Israel has ordered strikes on Iran's nuclear program, or whether the U.S. opposed this specific...
The Trump administration began sending termination notices Thursday to about 500,000 foreign nationals who had received temporary stays to live and work in the United States under a special humanitarian exception. The so-called CHNV program was open to applicants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela from 2023 until it was terminated by President Donald Trump earlier this year. Recipients of the notices from the Department of Homeland Security are encouraged to "self-deport immediately." The move came two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that DHS can order CHNV participants to...
President Donald trump ramped up his attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, calling him a "numbskull" and demanding steep rate cuts to ease the $600 billion annual interest bill on U.S. debt. Now, with inflation cooling faster than expected, rate cuts could be on the Fed's monetary policy table as soon as September, according to Citi economists. "We continue to pencil in 125bp of consecutive rate cuts from the Fed starting in September," Citi economists wrote, pointing to a rapid slowdown in core inflation as the key catalyst for policy easing. Trump's latest broadside...
U.S. President Donald Trump continues to press Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, as inflation data remains subdued despite his aggressive tariff policy. While Trump continues to press for lower rates, he said he won't fire Powell. "We're going to spend $600 billion a year because of one numbskull that sits here," Trump said. "Cut your rates now, there's no inflation." Trump suggested the Fed cut interest rates by two full percentage points, which could save the U.S. up to $900 billion. This is larger than his past ask for a one percentage point cut from the Fed....
The Federal Reserve's path to interest rate cuts starting in September appeared to widen on Thursday, after a pair of government reports pointed to cooler inflation and signs of potential weakening in the labor market. U.S. producer prices advanced 2.6% in May from a year earlier, after rising 2.5% in April, the Labor Department reported. Taken together with tamer-than-expected increases in the Consumer Price Index in May, economists estimated that inflation by the Fed's preferred gauge of underlying price pressures, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, likely rose in...
A tentative agreement between the United States and China may be a step back from the worst-case scenario of a complete collapse of trade between the world's two largest economies, but it creates more problems than it solves. President Donald Trump has hailed the deal, which is still awaiting final approval from both sides, as a "great deal" that will benefit both countries. While not all the details are known, what has been revealed suggests a deal that will likely hurt both economies and fail to address some pressing issues, such as China's dominance of the rare earths supply chain. The...
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....