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...
EUR/USD trades firmly around the fresh four-month high of 1.0850 in Friday's North American session after the release of the softer-than-expected United States (US) Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for February. The US NFP report showed that the economy added 151K fresh workers, slightly lower than estimates of 160K. However, the pace of labor demand remained higher than what investors saw in January. In the previous month, 125K fresh workers were added, downwardly revised from 143KThe Unemployment Rate accelerated to 4.1%, from estimates and the former release of 4%. Meanwhile, Average Hourly...
The dollar index remained near a four-month low of 103.7 on Friday, marking its fifth straight session of declines, the longest losing streak in nearly a year. Traders were analyzing the payrolls report, which showed that the labor market showed few signs of weakness. The U.S. economy added 151,000 payrolls, slightly lower than the 160,000 expected, the unemployment rate unexpectedly edged up to 4.1% and wage growth eased to 0.3%, as expected. Meanwhile, federal government employment declined by 10,000, but the full impact of the DOGE layoffs has yet to materialize. Additionally, ongoing...
Gold prices edged up on Friday, poised for a weekly gain on safe-haven inflows and a U.S. jobs report that showed weaker-than-expected job growth in February, suggesting the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $2,918.11 an ounce by 9:24 a.m. (1424 GMT). Bullion has gained more than 2% so far this week, as U.S. President Donald Trump's ever-changing tariff policies fueled uncertainty. U.S. gold futures were steady at $2,925. The U.S. dollar index was on track for its worst weekly performance since Nov. 4, making dollar-priced bullion cheaper for...
Oil rose on Friday but remained on track for its biggest weekly decline since late last year as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on major trading partners injected volatility and uncertainty into global markets. Brent crude futures rose near $70 a barrel on Friday, helped by a falling dollar and potential U.S. plans to replenish its strategic oil reserves, but are still down more than 3% this week. Trump signed an order Thursday to cut tariffs on Mexico and Canada covered by the trade pact through April 2, just days after the tariffs went into effect. (Newsmaker23) Source: Bloomberg
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the US Dollar (USD) against six major currencies, had its worst week in more than a year, down more than 3.5% since Monday and trading near 103.70 at the time of writing on Friday (07/3). The greenback is undergoing a regime change where the US Dollar is no longer favored by traders. The interest rate differential between the Federal Reserve (Fed) and other central banks is set to narrow after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday that there could be two to three rate cuts this year. On the economic data front, all eyes...