Oil prices rose on Thursday after the United States issued new Iran-related sanctions and renewed tensions in the Middle East countered strength in the dollar. Brent crude futures were up $1.03, or 1.46%, to $71.83 a barrel at 12:13 p.m. EDT (1613 GMT). The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) contract for April, expiring on Thursday, rose $1.07 to $68.23. The more actively traded WTI May contract rose 99 cents, or 1.48%, to $67.90, having risen more than $1 during the session. The U.S. on Thursday issued new Iran-related sanctions, targeting entities including for the first time a...
The AUD/USD pair plummets to near 0.6280 during North American trading hours on Thursday. The Aussie pair faces an intense sell-off as the Australian Dollar (AUD) underperforms its peers due to weak employment data for February.The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the labor force unexpectedly witnessed a massive lay-off. Australian employers fired 52.8K workers, while economists expected a fresh addition of 30K. In January, the economy added 30.5K payrolls, downwardly revised from 44K. The Unemployment Rate remains steady at 4.1%, as expectedWeak employment data has resulted in...
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the US Dollar (USD) against six major currencies, rallies above 104.00 on Thursday after the weekly jobcless claims data. Borrowing costs were kept unchanged overnight by the Federal Reserve (Fed), and projected two interest rate cuts for 2025. During Wednesday's Fed meeting, Chairman Jerome Powell said that any tariff-driven bump in inflation will be "transitory." However, he added later that it will be very challenging to say with confidence how much inflation stems from tariffs versus other factors. He also said recession odds...
Gold (XAU/USD) price managed to reach an all-time high of $3,057 before dropping nearly 0.50% to around $3,041 at the time of writing on Thursday (3/20). Despite selling pressure from profit-taking, the previous uptick came after the Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate decision overnight, where the central bank kept interest rates unchanged in the range of 4.25%-4.50%. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that tariffs should only delay the time to achieve inflation targets. Meanwhile, on the geopolitical front, tensions are rising in Gaza and Turkey. Israel continues its attacks on Gaza...