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 Swiss franc underperformed its Group-of-10 peers after President Donald Trump announced a 39% tariff on the nation's products while setting a 10% global minimum rate. USD/CHF rose 0.2% to 0.8135. The latest tariff on Switzerland was higher than the 31% rate Trump initially threatened to impose in April when he unveiled duties on dozens of trading partners The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index inched up 0.1% to the highest level since late May The downside for the Swiss franc may be limited as that greenback tends to weaken whenever Trump raises tariffs and as Switzerland's...
Oil is on track for the biggest weekly gain since mid-June after President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Russia, as the market braced for the fallout from US tariffs that take effect on Friday. West Texas Intermediate was steady above $69 a barrel, up more than 6% for the week, the largest weekly move since Israel attacked Iran. Brent settled below $72 on Thursday. Trump has threatened economic penalties on Moscow if a swift truce on the war in Ukraine isn't reached, and singled out India for higher levies, in part due to its buying of Russian crude and weapons. For...
Gold held an advance — but remained on track for a weekly loss — as the White House unveiled President Donald Trump's tariff rates on trading partners that are set to take effect on Friday. Bullion traded near $3,290 an ounce as markets opened in Asia, after ending the previous session 0.5% higher. The US will maintain a minimum global tariff of 10%, while imports from countries with trade surpluses with the nation face duties of 15% or higher. Early market reaction was muted, showing investors were unsurprised by the announcement. Read More: How Trump Let $1 Trillion Worth of Imports...
The EUR/USD recovered some ground on Thursday, up a modest 0.10% after data from the United States (US) revealed a strong economy, justifying the Federal Reserve's reluctance to reduce rates, as witnessed on Wednesday. AT the time of writing, the pair trades at 1.1417, virtually unchanged. Before Wall Street opened, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, exceeded estimates and the previous month's reading, indicating that prices are rising. Other data revealed that the labor market remains resilient, after the number of Americans...
GBP/USD sank again on Thursday, falling for a sixth straight session and dragging the Pound Sterling (GBP) down nearly 3% top-to-bottom from last week's peak near 1.3588. Cable is getting dragged back into bearish territory as the US Dollar (USD) catches a broad-market bid on renewed interest rate woes amid rebounding US inflation data and a looming Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) report on Friday. United States (US) economic data remains far more robust than many market watchers and policymakers had feared when the Trump administration kicked off a never-ending cycle of tariff threats and...