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 U.S. dollar strengthened slightly on Friday, but the greenback is still facing its sharpest weekly drop since July as traders assess the probability of a rate reduction by the U.S. Federal Reserve next month. Traders have raised the odds of a quarter-point Fed cut at its December 9-10 meeting to around 87% from roughly 40% a week earlier, a swing that has knocked the dollar lower and trimmed bond yields. The shift was driven by benign U.S. data and some dovish comments from Fed policymakers, although other officials have called for a more cautious approach to rate changes due to a lack...
Brent crude oil futures inched up on Friday as drawn-out Russia-Ukraine peace talks kept geopolitical risks elevated, while traders kept one eye on the outcome of an OPEC+ meeting on Sunday for clues about potential output changes. However, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were frozen after a system outage at exchange operator CME Group. Traders said they were informed by CME just before 0300 GMT of the halt due to a cooling issue at its CyrusOne data centres, which affected trading of all futures and options contracts on Globex. Brent oil trades on the Intercontinental Exchange,...
Gold (XAU/USD) sticks to intraday gains near a two-week top heading into the European session on Friday, with bulls awaiting a sustained move beyond the $4,200 mark before placing fresh bets. The increasing likelihood of another interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) in December turns out to be a key factor that continues to benefit the non-yielding yellow metal. The intraday move up could also be attributed to technical buying above the $4,170-4,175 hurdle. Meanwhile, the US Dollar (USD) looks to build on the overnight bounce from an over one-week low and acts as a headwind for...
The US dollar weakened and is heading for one of its worst weeks since mid-year as markets increasingly believe the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in December. Expectations of this policy easing arose after a series of data showed inflation starting to tame, retail sales slowing, and consumer confidence declining. Fed interest rate futures now project a probability of a 25 bps rate cut at over 80%, much higher than a week earlier. In such a situation, US bond yields tend to fall, weakening the dollar's appeal as a yield-bearing asset. Dovish comments from several Fed officials have...
Silver (XAG/USD) remains near its highest level since mid-October, supported by a combination of expectations for global interest rate cuts and a weakening US dollar. The prospect of lower interest rates makes non-yielding assets like silver and gold relatively more attractive than bonds. At the same time, concerns about the global economy and geopolitical uncertainty are driving some investors to seek "safe haven alternatives" to gold, and silver is also benefiting from these inflows. Fundamentally, silver has a dual advantage: it is not only a precious metal that hedges against inflation...