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 U.S. dollar is expected to weaken further in 2026, albeit at a slower pace than this year, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank. Over the past one-year period, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currency pairs, has edged lower by more than 6%. A range of policy moves under U.S. President Donald Trump have dented the dollar throughout 2025, including the White House's sweeping tariffs, fears over the sustainability of elevated U.S. government debt levels, and worries over the independence of the Federal Reserve. In a note, the Deutsche Bank analysts...
The ISM Manufacturing PMI for the US fell to 48.2 in November 2025, the lowest in four months, compared to 48.7 in September and below forecasts of 48.6. The reading showed that the manufacturing sector contracted for the ninth consecutive month and at a faster pace, led by pullbacks in supplier deliveries (49.3 vs 54.2), new orders (47.4 vs 49.4) and employment (44 vs 46), with 67% of panelists (the same as October) indicating that managing head counts is still the norm at their companies, as opposed to hiring. Also, price pressures intensified (58.5 vs 58) and backlog of orders decreased...
US President Donald Trump has rekindled economic debate after stating that his administration could eliminate the income tax entirely and replace it with revenue from import tariffs. According to Trump, increasing tariffs on foreign goods could generate significant government revenue, making it a primary source of federal revenue without burdening citizens with income taxes. This statement immediately drew scrutiny from economists and market participants. Some considered the idea overly ambitious, given that income taxes are one of the US government's largest sources of revenue. Relying on...
Trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was halted on Friday (November 28th) following a cooling issue at one of its data centers. "Due to a cooling issue at the CyrusOne data center, our markets are currently suspended," a CME spokesperson said in an emailed statement early Friday morning. "Our support team is working to resolve this issue and will update clients with pre-open details as soon as they are available." The CME the world's largest exchange operator by market value trades futures and options contracts for a variety of asset classes, including agricultural commodities,...
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (November 27) that a draft outline of a peace proposal being discussed by the United States and Ukraine could form the basis of a future agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that if not, Russia would continue fighting. US President Donald Trump has long said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, but his efforts so far, including a summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August, have not yielded peace. A leaked 28-point US peace plan emerged last week, alarming Ukrainian and...