European stocks weakened slightly on Wednesday (October 29, 2025), after several consecutive days of record highs. The STOXX 600 index fell by around -0.3% to 576 points, while the STOXX 50 also corrected from its peak. Investors chose to hold positions while awaiting key data and policy decisions from the Federal Reserve (The Fed). The pharmaceutical sector was one of the laggards, with shares of giants like Novartis plunging by around -4.3% after underwhelming financial results. On the other hand, stocks like HSBC and Nokia actually saw a surge—HSBC rose by around 4.4% after raising its...
Gold (XAU/USD) prices fell below $2,770 at the time of writing on Monday (1/27) after a weekend full of headlines and a busy week of central bank interest rate decisions coming up. Over the weekend, markets understood why US President Donald Trump has been loosening up on the use of tariffs as a tool. It appears that tariffs will be used as leverage, for example, for countries that refuse to accept deported US immigrants who are being taken back to their home countries. Colombia felt the impact on Sunday when President Trump ordered emergency tariffs of 25%, and increased to 50% within a...
WTI crude futures were fluctuating around $74.8 a barrel on Monday as markets reacted to the Trump administration's trade policy shift. The U.S. initially threatened tariffs on Colombia over a migrant dispute but stopped short of doing so after Bogotá agreed to President Trump's terms. The move follows a series of global trade actions targeting China, Canada, Mexico and the EU, alongside calls for OPEC to lower oil prices. Trump has argued that lower oil prices could hurt Russia's revenues and curb its actions in Ukraine. Meanwhile, signs of slowing economic activity in China, the world's...
USD/JPY edged lower, tracking lower UST yields while the BoJ MPC (last Friday) signaled continued policy normalization. The currency pair was last seen at 154.05, OCBC FX analysts Frances Cheung and Christopher Wong noted. "Japanese economic data supports BoJ policy normalization. Wage growth pressures remain intact, along with broadening services inflation. Tokyo core CPI, PPI, wages rose while labor market reports also showed upward wage pressure with the unemployment rate easing, while unions called for another 5-6% wage hike in the shunto wage negotiations for 2025." "We still expect...
This weekend the US successfully used the threat of tariffs on Colombia to secure its policy objective of deporting illegal immigrants. The use of tariffs as a policy lever now appears well understood by the market and may be worth it to reduce marginal volatility, notes ING FX analyst Chris Turner. "FX markets are still operating on the potential 1 February deadline for tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China – and that should prevent the dollar from correcting too much this week. Instead, focus may shift back to the macro side given a slew of central bank rate meetings, Q4 GDP data and some...
Gold (XAU/USD) recovered most of its intraday losses and traded with a mild negative bias, around the $2,760 area during the first half of the European session on Monday (1/27). US President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on all imports from Colombia revived trade war fears and triggered a fresh wave of global risk-off trade. Additionally, falling US Treasury bond yields, amid bets that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will cut interest rates twice this year, provided additional support to the non-yielding yellow metal. That said, a decent recovery in the US Dollar (USD) from over...