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...
The ISM Services PMI unexpectedly jumped to 51.6 in April 2025 from a nine-month low of 50.8 in March and below forecasts of 50.6. New orders (52.3 vs 50.4) and inventories (53.4 vs 50.3) grew at a faster pace and business activity remained in expansion territory (53.7 vs 55.9) while employment continued to contract although at a slower pace (49 vs 46.2). Source: Trading Economics
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. was meeting with many countries, including China, on trade deals, and his main priority with China was to secure a fair trade deal. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had no plans to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, but U.S. officials were speaking with Chinese officials about a variety of different things. Asked if any trade agreements would be announced this week, Trump said that could "very well be" but gave no details. Trump's top officials have engaged in a flurry of meetings with trading partners...
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will not remove Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman before his term ends in May 2026. Trump reiterated his belief that the US central bank will have to lower interest rates at some point. "Yes, he's going to have to. And at some point, he will. He'd rather not because he's not a fan of me. You know, he just doesn't like me because I think he's very rigid," Trump said. (Newsmaker23) Source: FXstreet
The U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April 2025, a slowdown from the downwardly revised 185,000 in March, but significantly surpassing market expectations of 130,000. This figure aligns closely with the average monthly gain of 152,000 over the past 12 months, despite growing uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump's aggressive tariff policies. Job growth was primarily seen in sectors such as health care (+51,000), transportation and warehousing (+29,000), financial activities (+14,000), and social assistance (+8,000), while federal government employment experienced a decline...
The United States (US) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is due to publish the high-impact Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for April on Friday at 12:30 GMT. The April employment report will be critical to affirm a Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cut in June amid prospects of US trade deals with its major Asian trading partners and an unexpected US economic contraction in the first quarter of this year. The data could, therefore, have a strong bearing on the US Dollar (USD) performance in the near term. In a NewsNation Town Hall interview early Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that...