World markets kicked off November in an upbeat mood, riffing off buoyant company earnings and calmer trade relations while batting away OPEC's planned end to output hikes and this week's Supreme Court hearing on President Donald Trump's tariffs. Following last week's meeting between Trump and China's President Xi Jinping in South Korea, the White House announced Saturday that China would lift export controls on rare earths and end probes into U.S. chip firms. But Trump said AI giant Nvidia's most advanced chips would be reserved for U.S. companies and kept out of China and other...
The Federal Reserve (Fed) will hold a two-day monetary policy meeting next week and announce its decision on March 19. Until then, the Fed will be in a blackout period, during which policymakers and officials will not be allowed to comment on the policy outlook. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the market sees little chance of a 25 basis point (bps) rate cut next week. The probability of a rate cut in May currently stands at around 40%. Meanwhile, the Fed FXS Sentiment Index (FXS) remains in neutral territory, just below 100. Following its January meeting, the Fed left its policy...
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his country is stopping all federal funding to South Africa, but South Africa responded by saying it would not engage in "megaphone diplomacy". Trump had already signed an executive order to cut all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa last month, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally, Israel. "To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States...
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said it remains to be seen if the Trump administration's tariff plans will prove to be inflationary, mapping out a checklist of things that could cause new import taxes to lead to more persistent price pressures. "In a simple case where we know it's a one-time thing, the textbook would say look through it," with no need for the Fed to respond with tighter monetary policy, Powell said at a question-and-answer session during an economic forum in New York City. "But you also want to be sure of a couple things," he continued. "If it turns into a series of...
In remarks from the Oval Office on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump discussed with disgust the massive tariffs Canada has on dairy and lumber and indicated that reciprocal tariffs from the U.S. could be "coming today" or next week. "They'll be met with the exact same tariff unless they drop it, and that's what reciprocal means," Trump said. "We may do it as early as today, or we'll wait till Monday or Tuesday, but that's what we're going to do. We're going to do, we're going to charge." The comments from Trump follow the 25% tariffs Trump placed on most goods from Canada this week....
US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) rose by 151,000 in February, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. Source: FXstreet
Asia-Pacific markets traded higher, tracking Wall Street gains overnight.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.41% after hitting a fresh record high on Thursday, while the Topix added 0.61%. South...
Both the STOXX 50 and STOXX 600 hovered around the flatline on Friday, as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of further developments in trade talks between US President Trump and Chinese...
As the U.S. government shutdown disrupts federal employee paychecks across the country, it also exacerbates the financial hardship of attorneys who represent the poorest members of society when they...