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...
Oil continued to rise after U.S. crude inventories fell the most since December, signaling a near-term supply squeeze. West Texas Intermediate was trading near $70 a barrel after closing 0.9% higher on Wednesday, while Brent settled below $74. U.S. stockpiles fell by 3.34 million barrels last week, the lowest in a month, while gasoline inventories also fell, government data showed. Oil has been on an upward trend since early March as sanctions and tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump raised the prospect of supply disruptions from producers including Iran and Venezuela. That prompted...
Gold edged higher in early Asian trade, supported by the prospect of rising investor demand. "The Shanghai gold exchange has accepted four Chinese life insurers as exchange members, allowing them to buy gold as part of a pilot program that could expand the network of gold buyers and create a major new buying impulse," TD Securities' Daniel Ghali said in a research note. The four life insurers have combined assets of nearly CNY13 trillion and represent nearly two-thirds of the potential buying impulse from the pilot program, the senior commodity strategist added. Spot gold edged up 0.1% to...
EUR/USD remains on their toes as the outlook of the Euro (EUR) is uncertain amid growing expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) would cut interest rates again. The Eurozone economy is expected to face significant downside economic risks after the imposition of reciprocal tariffs by US President Trump. Trump had signaled plenty of times that he will impose tariffs on the Eurozone for not buying enough American goods. Such a scenario will be negative for the old continent. Historically, economies move to strengthen their domestic economy by lowering interest rates when external...
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, buoyed by government data showing U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories fell last week and by mounting concerns about tighter global supply following the U.S. threat of tariffs on nations buying Venezuelan crude. Brent crude futures settled up 77 cents, or 1.05%, at $73.79 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled up 65 cents, or 0.94%, at $69.65 a barrel. At their session highs, both benchmarks were up more than $1 a barrel. U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week as refiners kept ramping up production, while gasoline and distillate...
Gold price has flat-lined late in the North American session, capped by the recovery of the US Dollar Index (DXY), which fell to a low of 104.18 before staging a recovery. The move was sponsored by the White House, which said that President Donald Trump would announce automobile tariffs at around 22:00 GMT. At the time of writing, XAU/USD trades at $3,019, virtually unchanged. Bullion traders failed to gain traction on headlines that Trump is considering announcing limited tariff plans and automotive tariffs, according to The Wall Street Journal. In the meantime, the US Dollar Index (DXY),...