The Hang Seng index slumped 206 points, or 0.8%, to close at 25,952 on Tuesday, losing early gains as sentiment soured amid a broad sectoral decline. The technology index fell 1.8% after US President Trump said Nvidia would be banned from selling its most advanced AI chips to China, although it would allow some sales to Beijing. Traders largely shrugged off reports that China was raising subsidies, cutting energy bills for major data centers. Consumer and property stocks also weakened, following declines in mainland China as US index futures plunged on uncertainty over the Fed's interest...
GBP/USD pair extends its downside to near 1.2580 during the early European session on Friday. Tariff uncertainty from US President Donald Trump undermines the Pound Sterling (GBP) against the US Dollar (USD). The US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index for January will be the highlight later on Friday. Trump met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer late Thursday, and President Trump was quick to announce that there might be trade tariffs imposed on the UK as well unless ambiguous terms of a trade deal with the US are agreed upon within an undetermined deadline. Investors will...
Gold price (XAU/USD) attracts some follow-through selling for the second successive day and drops to over a two-week trough, around the $2,860 region during the Asian session on Friday. Bets that the Federal Reserve (Fed) would stick to its hawkish stance on the back of still-elevated inflation assist the US Dollar (USD) to prolong this week's recovery move from the lowest level since December 10. This turns out to be a key factor driving flows away from the non-yielding yellow metal. Apart from this, the intraday slide could further be attributed to some repositioning trade ahead of the...
Oil prices eased on Friday, heading for their first monthly drop since November, as uncertainty over global economic growth and fuel demand from Washington's tariff threats and further signs of a U.S. economic slowdown outweighed supply concerns. The more active May Brent crude futures slipped 31 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.26 a barrel by 0348 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $70.04 a barrel, down 31 cents, or 0.4%. Front-month Brent that expires later on Friday traded at $73.69, down 35 cents, or 0.5%. Both benchmarks are on track to post their first monthly...
The Japanese Yen (JPY) trims a part of its intraday gains against the broadly stronger US Dollar (USD), assisting the USD/JPY pair to recover nearly 50 pips from the Asian session low, around the 149.00 neighborhood. Any meaningful JPY depreciation, however, seems elusive in the wake of the growing market acceptance that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will hike interest rates further this year. The bets were reaffirmed by BoJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida's remarks, saying that the underlying inflation rate is gradually rising toward the 2% target. This helps offset the softer-than-expected...
Brent crude oil futures fell to around $73 per barrel on Friday, trimming gains of over 2% from the previous session, as traders continued to assess supply risks. On Thursday, President Trump revoked Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela, potentially tightening global supply. Chevron exports about 240,000 barrels per day from Venezuela, and halting its operation would disrupt more than a quarter of the country's entire oil output. Trump also affirmed tariffs on Mexico and Canada, including a 10% levy on Canadian energy imports, effective March 4. Meanwhile, investors weighed these...