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...
Silver (XAG/USD) stages a sharp recovery on Wednesday, snapping a four-day losing streak after sliding to its lowest level in over two weeks, since August 4. The rebound comes as the US Dollar (USD) lost ground following renewed political pressure on the Federal Reserve (Fed), with US President Donald Trump publicly calling for the resignation of Fed Governor Lisa Cook. The safe-haven appeal of Silver re-emerged, helping the metal bounce from session lows. At the time of writing, Silver is trading around $37.80, up nearly 1.0% on the day, having rebounded strongly from an intraday low of...
Oil prices rose about 1% on Wednesday (August 20th) on a larger-than-expected weekly decline in US crude inventories, as investors awaited the next steps in negotiations to end the Ukraine war, with sanctions on Russian crude remaining in place for now. Brent crude rose 56 cents, or 0.9%, to $66.35 a barrel at 10:48 a.m. EDT (14:48 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 66 cents, or 1.1%, to $63.01. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said energy companies withdrew 6.0 million barrels of crude oil from their inventories during the week ending August 15th. The...
The dollar weakened on Wednesday (August 20th) after US President Donald Trump called for Federal Reserve Chairwoman Lisa Cook to resign. Investors are also awaiting a speech by Fed Chairwoman Jerome Powell on Friday for clues on interest rate policy. Trump cited calls from the head of the US Federal Housing Finance Administration urging the Justice Department to investigate Cook for alleged mortgage fraud. Spokespeople for Cook and the Fed did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "The market has made it clear in its conscience that it doesn't like it when the president...
Gold edged higher as traders weighed the outlook for US monetary policy ahead of a key speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell later this week. Gold bullion prices traded near $3,330 per ounce as the market awaited clues from Powell's annual speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday. Swaps predict a high probability that the Fed will cut borrowing costs by a quarter point next month. Lower interest rates benefit gold because it doesn't pay interest. However, the Fed's monetary easing path was complicated by higher-than-expected inflation figures last week, which caused some...
The AUD/USD pair weakened for the third consecutive trading day on Wednesday (August 20th). The Australian currency pair slumped near 0.6425 as antipodean currencies underperformed their peers. The Australian dollar faced sharp selling pressure as financial market participants expected the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to cut interest rates again for the remainder of the year. Dovish bets from the RBA intensified as inflation in Australia has approached the central bank's desired range of 2%-3%. Earlier, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) maintained its benchmark interest rate. China's...