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...
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...
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the US Dollar (USD) against a basket of six major currencies, continued to strengthen on Thursday (27/2), breaking above 107.00 as markets digested the second reading of the United States (US) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and its inflation component. Traders were surprised by the higher-than-expected Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data, which reinforced concerns over persistent inflation. Daily Market Movers Summary: US dollar strengthens after GDP inflation surprise US GDP for Q4 2024 came in line with estimates at 2.3%,...