Hong Kong stocks rallied in Wednesday morning trading, with the benchmark index rising 357 points, or 1.4%, to 25,324. This increase extended the rally into a second session and brought the market to a two-week high, with broad-based gains across most sectors. Positive sentiment came from Wall Street, which posted solid gains overnight after weaker US inflation data. The data reinforced speculation that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in September to support the improving labor market. In mainland China, markets also rallied to a three-year high. The main boost came from the...
AUD/USD came under further downside pressure on Thursday, adding to Wednesday's retracement and briefly dipping below the key support at 0.6400 the figure. The pair's pullback came despite decent losses in the Greenback and firmer Australian labour market report. AUD/USD slipped under renewed selling pressure despite a continued softening in the US Dollar (USD) on Thursday. The Australian Dollar (AUD) continued to fade part of Tuesday's sharp rebound, this time retreating below its critical 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) near 0.6460. Traders appear increasingly focused on the...
Oil prices settled lower on Thursday on expectations for a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal that could result in sanctions being eased and more barrels released onto the global market. Brent crude futures settled down $1.56, or 2.36%, to $64.53 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled down $1.53, or 2.42%, to $61.62. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the U.S. was getting close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had "sort of" agreed to the terms. An Iranian official told NBC News in an interview published on Wednesday that Iran was willing to agree...
Gold price rallied sharply on Thursday after hitting a weekly low of $3,120, posting solid gains of over 1.40%, boosted by broad US Dollar weakness due to a nifty Producer Price Index (PPI) report in the United States (US). This, along with falling US bond yields, keeps XAU/USD trading at $3,228 at the time of writing. The yellow metal began to rise in anticipation of US PPI data, which in April came surprisingly below estimates and March's data. At the same time, Retail Sales for the same period slowed as households front-loaded motor vehicle purchases, and job data revealed by the US...
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Oil remains under pressure on Thursday, trading near $61.20 during the American session after declining for a second straight day. The commodity briefly fell over 3% earlier in the day before finding near-term support at the $60.00 psychological level. The latest leg down is driven by a combination of bearish supply-side fundamentals and technical rejection near key resistance. Renewed optimism surrounding a potential US-Iran nuclear agreement has revived expectations of increased Iranian oil hitting global markets, should sanctions be eased. This has triggered...
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback against a basket of major currencies, is trading just under 101.00 on Thursday after key US economic data releases offered little upside momentum. Retail Sales rose a modest 0.1% in April, while the Producer Price Index softened to 2.4% annually, below expectations. Weekly jobless claims held steady at 229K. Speaking at the Thomas Laubach Research Conference, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the need to revisit the Fed's strategic language around inflation and employment. The market reaction was muted, with traders...