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...
Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in the US rose by 143,000 in January, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. This reading followed the 307,000 increase (revised from 256,000) recorded in December and came in below the market expectation of 170,000. Other details of the publication showed that the Unemployment Rate declined to 4% from 4.1%, while the Labor Force Participation Rate edged higher to 62.6% from 62.5%. Finally, annual wage inflation, as measured by the change in the Average Hourly Earnings, rose 4.1%, surpassing the market expectation of 3.8%. Source: FXstreet
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said it is closely following developments in the U.S., including moves by the Trump administration to halt foreign aid and impose tariffs on China, but it was too soon to offer clear assessments of the impact. The global lender has repeatedly warned countries that protectionist measures, trade restrictions and increased uncertainty could dampen global growth, but IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said the impact of already announced U.S. tariffs and other measures would depend on the responses of other countries and consumers, along with further trade...
Initial applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week but remained relatively subdued. New claims rose by 11,000 to 219,000 in the week ended Feb. 1. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 213,000 applications. Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, rose to 1.89 million in the week ended Jan. 25, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The level of initial claims has remained broadly in line with pre-Covid levels, and private employment data from ADP Research showed a healthy pace of hiring in January....
A group of sustainable finance experts tasked with advising the European Union have proposed changes to the bloc's rules for classifying climate-friendly activities, which they say will slash the reporting burden on companies by a third. The proposal to simplify the bloc's green investment rulebook comes ahead of a major review of the European Union's broader sustainability rules and as Brussels draws up plans to cut red tape around green finance. The EU is under pressure from member countries like France to simplify rules around doing business, while U.S President Donald Trump's pursuit...
The economic activity in the US service sector continued to expand in January, albeit at a softer pace than in December, with the ISM Services PMI declining to 52.8 from 54. This reading came in below the market expectation of 54.3. Other details of the report showed that the Prices Paid Index, the inflation component, dropped to 60.4 from 64.4, while the Employment Index edged higher to 52.3 from 51.3. Market reaction The US Dollar stays under selling pressure following these data. At the time of press, the US Dollar Index was down 0.6% on the day at 107.35. Source : Fxstreet
Private sector employment in the US rose 183,000 in December and annual pay was up 4.7% year-over-year, the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported on Wednesday. This reading followed the 176,000 (revised from 122,000) increase recorded in December and came in above the market expectation of 150,000. Assessing the survey's findings, "we had a strong start to 2025 but it masked a dichotomy in the labor market," said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. "Consumer-facing industries drove hiring, while job growth was weaker in business services and production." Market reaction The US...
Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, said on Thursday it had ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after the Chinese artificial intelligence startup failed to address the regulator's concerns over its privacy policy. The watchdog had questioned DeepSeek this week about its use of personal data, particularly seeking informationon what personal data is collected, from which sources, for what purposes, on what legal basis and whether it is stored in China. The Garante's order - aimed at protecting Italian users' data - came after the Chinese companies that supply the...
The number of job openings on the last business day of December stood at 7.6 million, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) on Tuesday. This reading followed the 8.15 million openings announced in November and came in below the market expectation of 8 million. "Over the month, hires and total separations were little changed at 5.5 million and 5.3 million, respectively. Within separations, quits (3.2 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.8 million) changed little," the BLS noted in its press release. Market reaction to JOLTS...
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....