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 fell on Wednesday as a de-escalation in US-China trade tensions dampened safe-haven demand, while markets eyed another batch of inflation data to gauge the Federal Reserve's policy path. Spot gold was down 0.7% at $3,226.11 an ounce, as of 0430 GMT. US gold futures were down 0.6% at $3,229.50. "The positive developments in US trade policy (are) dampening the appeal of gold in the short term," said Kyle Rodda, financial markets analyst at Capital.com. "I think if we see continued progress in trade negotiations and deals being done between the US and its trading partners, gold could...
Silver (XAG/USD) extended its previous day's retracement slide from the $33.20-$33.25 resistance zone and triggered some follow-through selling during the Asian session on Wednesday (5/14). The white metal dropped to a fresh intraday low, around the $31.60 area in the last hour, although the mixed technical setup warrants caution before positioning for deeper losses. Against the backdrop of a decent recovery from the $28.45 area, or the YTD trough touched in April, the recent price action along a three-week-old descending channel constitutes the formation of a bullish flag pattern. However,...
GBP/USD traded around 1.3300 during the Asian session on Wednesday (5/14), steadying after posting more than 1% gains in the previous session. However, the pair's gains may be limited as the British Pound (GBP) faces headwinds from declining employment and slowing wage growth in the UK, factors that could strengthen expectations for further interest rate cuts by the Bank of England (BoE). This week, market participants are bracing for increased volatility in the Pound Sterling, with the release of the UK's preliminary Q1 GDP and Industrial and Manufacturing Production data on Thursday. The...
The Japanese Yen (JPY) remained firmer against its US counterpart for the second straight day on Wednesday and reacted little to a mostly in-line Producer Price Index (PPI). Bank of Japan (BOJ) Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida's aggressive comments on Tuesday opened the door for further policy normalization and continued to act as a tailwind for the JPY. The US Dollar (USD), on the other hand, continued to weaken on Tuesday's softer US consumer inflation figures, which raised bets that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut interest rates at least twice this year. This was seen as another factor...
The Australian dollar (AUD) continued its gains against the US dollar (USD) on Wednesday (5/14) after posting a gain of more than 1.50% in the previous session. The AUD/USD pair strengthened as the US dollar weakened following weaker-than-expected US inflation data. The seasonally adjusted Australian Wage Price Index rose 3.4% year-on-year in Q4 2025, up from a 3.2% increase in Q4 2024 and beating market expectations of a 3.2% increase. This marked a recovery from the previous quarter, which recorded the slowest wage growth since Q3 2022. On a quarterly basis, the index rose 0.9% in Q1,...