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. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, returning to the stale level seen at the start of the year. Initial claims fell 21,000 to 221,000 in the week ended March 1. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for 233,000 applications.Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, rose to 1.9 million in the previous week, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. (Newsmaker) Source: Bloomberg
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey urged the United States on Wednesday to settle its concerns about the global economy through dialogue rather than the kind of import tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed this week. Bailey, speaking to British lawmakers, said he had addressed the importance of open trade at a meeting of Group of 20 central bankers and finance ministers last week in South Africa that was not attended by new U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "If you think the world economy is somehow out of balance, the place to address those balances is in a...
President Donald Trump will announce tariff changes for Canada and Mexico this afternoon as he considers lowering tariffs on sectors such as autos, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg Television Wednesday morning. Trump is expected to make a decision on the issue this afternoon, Lutnick said, reiterating that the administration's tariff policy will be reevaluated on April 2 to cover larger imports and reciprocal levies. "There will be tariffs — let's be clear — but what he's thinking about is what parts of the market he might consider giving relief to by the time we get to, of...
In February, US private sector employment grew by just 77K, lower than the initial estimate of 140K, according to the latest Automatic Data Processing (ADP) report. It was also lower than January's 183K. (Newsmaker) Source: FXstreet
Britain's finance minister said on Tuesday she was hopeful of securing a trade deal with the U.S. to avoid possible trade tariffs, but warned Britain was still likely to be hurt by duties imposed on other countries. Countries worldwide are scrambling to shield themselves from potential tariffs during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term in office. His administration's new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods, took effect earlier on Tuesday. "I think there's every reason to be hopeful about coming to some sort of a trade deal,"...
China has retaliated against the new US tariffs by increasing import levies on a range of American agricultural and food products. The tariff increases announced Tuesday range from 10% to 15%. In addition, China has imposed export and investment restrictions on 25 US companies, citing national security concerns. China's foreign ministry said Tuesday that if the United States is determined to launch a trade war or tariffs, China will respond accordingly. The response will come in the form of countermeasures aimed at protecting China's rights and interests, according to ministry spokesman Lin...
On Tuesday (04/03), China swiftly retaliated against the new US tariffs by announcing a 10%-15% increase in import tariffs covering a range of American farm and food products, as well as imposing export and investment restrictions on 25 US companies. COMMENTARY: OLE HANSEN, HEAD OF COMMODITY STRATEGY, SAXO BANK "From a pricing perspective, this comes at a very bad time for US corn prices, which are already under selling pressure from hedge funds who have in recent months amassed very large and sustained bets on higher prices. "This will further increase China's dependence on Brazilian...
Asia-Pacific markets were set to fall Tuesday, tracking Wall Street declines overnight after U.S. President Donald Trump made it clear that tariffs on Mexico and Canada would go into effect as planned. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open lower, with the futures contract in Chicago at 37,345 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 37,300, against the index's last close of 37,785.47. Japan's employment rate for January came in at 2.5%, slightly higher than Reuters' estimates of 2.4%. Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 22,910 pointing to a weaker open compared to...
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....