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. job openings increased in January, but demand for labor is likely to soften in the months ahead amid concerns that uncertainty over import tariffs and aggressive government spending cuts could cause a sharp slowdown in economic activity. For now, the labor market is holding steady, with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, from the Labor Department on Tuesday showing layoffs declining for a fourth straight month to the lowest level since last June. There were 1.13 job openings for every unemployed person, up from 1.09 in December. Hiring, however, remained...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled his planned tariffs on all steel and aluminum products entering the United States from Canada, bringing the total to 50%, in response to the province of Ontario imposing, opens new tab 25% tariffs on electricity entering the U.S. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had instructed his commerce secretary to add an additional 25% tariff on the products that would take effect Wednesday morning. "Also, Canada must immediately reduce the Anti-American Farmer Tariffs of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which have long been considered...
US job openings rose in January, indicating steady demand for workers as the Trump administration takes office. Available job openings rose to 7.74 million from a revised 7.51 million in December, according to monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for 7.6 million openings. (Newsmaker23) Source: Bloomberg
The U.S. economy is set for weaker growth and higher inflation as the tariff impact is likely to be greater than previously feared, economists at Goldman Sachs said in a recent. "Larger tariffs are also likely to hit GDP harder. We have reduced our 2025 Q4/Q4 GDP growth forecast to 1.7%, from 2.2% previously," Goldman Sachs economists said. Goldman Sachs updated its economic forecasts to reflect a new assumption of larger tariffs that raise the effective tariff rate by 10%, compared with a prior assumption of 4.3% . The White House raised tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico but then...
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...