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...
Gold edges lower in the early Asian session on possible position adjustments, but losses may be limited by concerns over U.S. policies. With this Wednesday's deadline for the 90-day pause on so-called reciprocal tariffs looming, President Trump said Sunday that a dozen or more letters could go out this week. Meanwhile, Trump signed his "one big, beautiful bill" into law in a July 4th ceremony. A key factor supporting gold is the damaging U.S. policy, which is eroding investors' confidence in safe U.S. assets, says Commerzbank Research's head of FX and Commodity Research Thu Lan Nguyen in a...
World oil prices fell again after OPEC+ announced a larger-than-expected increase in production starting next month. The group of oil producing countries led by Saudi Arabia agreed to increase supply by 548,000 barrels per day, which immediately sparked concerns about oversupply in the global market. This caused Brent oil prices to fall by 1.6% to $67 per barrel. The decision was announced on Saturday, as part of OPEC+'s strategy to adjust production to summer demand. This increase in production is much higher than market expectations, which previously estimated an additional 411,000...
Oil futures edged lower in holiday-thinned trading on Friday, as the market awaited an OPEC+ meeting later this week and the likelihood that member nations would decide to raise output. Brent crude was down 50 cents, or 0.7%, at $68.30 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 50 cents, or 0.75%, at $66.50 shortly before 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). Trading was thin due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday. Brent crude was up about 0.8% from Friday's close and WTI crude was up about 1.5%. The eight-nation OPEC+ group is likely to raise oil output again for August at its meeting...
Gold prices continued their uptrend on Friday (04/07), poised to post gains of more than 1.50% for the week as the US Dollar weakened amid thin liquidity conditions following the US market closure to celebrate Independence Day. A minor escalation in the trade war boosted bullion prices. XAU/USD was trading at $3,333, up 0.26%. US President Donald Trump said that they would start sending letters to countries on Friday, ahead of the July 9 deadline. He announced that some of the tariffs imposed would be in the range of 10% to 70% and would take effect on August 1. Regarding this, US Treasury...
Oil futures fell more than 1% on Friday, pressured by expectations that OPEC+ producers will decide later this week to raise output and by Iran's reaffirmation of its commitment to nuclear nonproliferation. Brent crude futures fell 70 cents, or 1.02%, to $68.10 a barrel by 10:06 a.m. ET (1406 GMT) while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 72 cents, or 1.07%, to $66.28. Trading was thin due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday. Both contracts were on track for small weekly gains, with Brent trading about 0.5% higher than Friday's close and WTI about 1.2% higher. The eight-nation OPEC+...