The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to reduce risk in large cap stocks. Among the index's contributors, Tencent was a major drag, with its shares falling by around 2.3%, putting pressure on the technology sector, which has recently been a driving force behind market gains. Weakness in large cap companies like this typically quickly impacts sentiment due to their significant weighting in...
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would likely extend a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short video app TikTok.The president said in May he would extend the June 19 deadline after the app helped him with young voters in the 2024 election. His comments to reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday reiterated that sentiment. "Probably, yeah," Trump said when asked about extending the deadline. "Probably have to get China approval but I think we'll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it." Source: Investing.com
Federal Reserve officials met on Tuesday armed with new economic data that could give more weight to their concerns that Trump administration policies, or at least the intense uncertainty around them, will slow growth in the coming months. Shortly before the start of the two-day policy meeting, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales fell 0.9% in May, exceeding the expected 0.7% decline in a Reuters poll of economists and marking the biggest drop in four months. The U.S. central bank itself then released a report showing a surprise contraction in industrial production...
Two oil tankers collided and caught fire on Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz, where electronic interference has surged during conflict between Iran and Israel, but there were no injuries to crew or spillage reported. With Iran and Israel firing missiles at each other since Friday, interference has disrupted navigation systems near the vital sea route between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world's oil. The United Arab Emirates coast guard said it had evacuated 24 people from one of the ships, Adalynn, to Khor Fakkan port after the crash 24 nautical miles off its eastern...
Retail Sales in the United States (US) declined by 0.9% in May to $715.4 billion, the US Census Bureau announced on Tuesday. This reading followed the 1.5% decrease (revised from +0.1%) recorded in April and came in worse than the market expectation for a contraction of 0.7%. On a yearly basis, Retail Sales were up 3.3%, compared to 5% in April. "Total sales for the March 2025 through May 2025 period were up 4.5% from the same period a year ago," the press release read. "Retail trade sales were down 0.9% from April 2025, and up 3.0% from last year." Other data from the US showed that...
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) announced on Tuesday (6/17) that it would keep its short-term interest rate target unchanged at 0.4%-0.5% after concluding a two-day monetary policy review meeting. The decision had been widely expected. The Japanese central bank extended the pause in its interest rate hike cycle to a third straight meeting, after raising rates by 25 basis points (bps) in January.(alg) Source: FXstreet