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...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged President Donald Trump on Friday not to compromise with a killer, referring to the Russian leader, as they met to sign a deal for U.S. participation in Ukraine's mineral industry. Trump and Zelenskiy sat down for talks in the Oval Office as Kyiv seeks to bolster U.S. support and Trump opens talks with Moscow. Zelenskiy, who has billions of dollars in U.S. arms and moral support from the Biden administration for his war on Russia, faces a stark contrast from Trump. Trump wants to end the three-year war, improve relations with Russia and recoup...
The Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation over the past 12 months moved lower in January, marking modest progress toward the central bank's 2% target, the Commerce Department said Friday. The personal-consumption-expenditures price index increased by 0.3% month over month in January, putting its 12-month rise at 2.5%. That is down from 2.6% in December.The core PCE price index, which excludes volatile food and energy costs increased by 0.3% last month as well. Its 12-month increase declined to 2.6%, from a revised 2.9% a month earlier.Both numbers landed close to Wall Street...
Core consumer prices in Japan's capital rose 2.2% in February from a year earlier, data showed on Friday, slowing for the first time in four months but remaining well above the central bank's 2% target.The persistently high inflation will likely support the case for the central bank to continue its monetary policy tightening campaign.The increase in the core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food costs, was slower than a median market forecast of 2.3% and a 2.5% gain in January.A separate index that strips away the effects of both fresh food and fuel costs, closely...
US President Donald Trump took to social media on Thursday, taking to Twitter to inform global markets that his planned 25% tariff package on Mexico and Canada will go into effect on March 4, rather than the April 2 date he had asserted hours earlier. The president also told markets that he planned to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods on that date. At the same time, White House officials are preparing an additional "reciprocal tariff" package that is also in the works aimed at multiple countries, potentially expanding to include the UK and the European Union in general. More...
Pending home sales in the United States fell 4.6% in January 2025 from the previous month, following an upwardly revised 4.1% decline in December 2024. This drop pushed the index to a record low of 70.6, significantly worse than market expectations of a 1.3% decline. Sales plunged 9.2% in the South, fell 2% in the Midwest and went down 1.2% in the West but rose 0.3% in the Northeast. "It is unclear if the coldest January in 25 years contributed to fewer buyers in the market, and if so, expect greater sales activity in upcoming months. However, it's evident that elevated home prices and...