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 Silver price (XAG/USD) recovers to around $30.05 during the early European trading hours on Monday. The white metal edges higher as the fear of tariff wars and the potential global recession boost the safe-haven demand. Silver price has witnessed heightened volatility since last week in response to the US imposing reciprocal trade tariffs on key trading partners. Mounting fears of recession over the impact of a global trade war triggered by US President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs dampen market sentiment and undermine the precious metals. Furthermore, strong industrial demand,...
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $60.30 during the early Asian session on Monday. The WTI price falls to its lowest point since April 2021 amid the fears that US President Donald Trump's global tariffs would push the United States (US) into a recession. Traders worry about an escalating trade war from Trump's global tariffs, which will sharply slow economic growth and raise fears of a slowdown in economic activity both in the US and globally. This, in turn, continues to undermine the WTI price. The tariffs, which are set to take effect this week,...
Gold price (XAU/USD) stages a goodish intraday bounce from a three-week low, around the $2,972-2,971 region, touched during the Asian session on Monday – and spikes to a fresh daily high, around the $3,055 area in the last hour. Data published earlier today showed that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) increased its state Gold reserves for the fifth consecutive month. Adding to this, the prevalent risk-off mood, recession fears, bets that a tariffs-driven US economic slowdown might force the Federal Reserve (Fed) to resume its rate-cutting cycle soon, and geopolitical risks act as a tailwind...
AUD/USD is off the five-year low but remains heavy near 0.6000 in the Asian session on Monday. The pair continues to suffer from a US-China trade war as US President Trump said that he would not do a deal with China until the US trade deficit was sorted out. Analysts at ANZ Bank expect the RBA to cut interest rates in all the next three policy meetings in May, July, and August. Additionally, the bank also sees the possibility of a larger-than-usual interest rate cut of 50 basis points (bps) in May if global growth deteriorates significantly. In addition to bloating RBA dovish bets, fears of...
Most Asian currencies weakened on Monday, with the dollar also declining amid heightened fears of a U.S. recession and global economic disruptions from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tariffs. The Chinese yuan retreated after Beijing retaliated against the increased tariffs over the weekend, although apparent intervention by the People's Bank of China limited the yuan's decline. Other Asian currencies weakened sharply as Trump signaled no intent to back down from his plans for sweeping reciprocal tariffs against major global economies. Dollar tests 6-mth lows; Trump doubles down on...