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 prices surged during the North American session after hitting a record high of $2,956 as the greenback weakened and US Treasury yields fell. At the time of writing, XAU/USD was trading at $2,949, up 0.49%. Uncertainty kept Bullion prices firm as investors weighed US President Donald Trump's proposed trade policies. Geopolitics continued to be in the second stage as the Ukraine-Russia conflict appeared closer to being resolved, while rising tensions in the Middle East fueled demand for Gold. Gold prices have been on the rise for the past eight weeks, driven by the most significant net...
Oil prices steadied on Monday as investors awaited clarity on talks to end the war in Ukraine and weighed up the prospect of a resumption in crude exports from northern Iraq. Brent futures were down 6 cents, or 0.1%, at $74.37 barrel by 1302 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined by 14 cents, or 0.2%, to $70.26. Both Brent and WTI dropped by more than $2 on Friday, registering weekly declines of 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. All eyes remain on efforts to end Russia's war on Ukraine, which enters its fourth year on Monday. Officials said on Sunday that European Union...
Gold's price (XAU/USD) is holding on to intraday gains on Monday, trading near $2,947 at the time of writing, supported by a weaker US Dollar (USD) and softer US yields in a reaction to the recent German federal election outcome. Although the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained 20% of votes, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) is comfortable in the lead with 208 seats against AfD's 152. US yields dropped off and the CME Federal Reserve (Fed) Futures are now favoring a 25 basis points (bps) rate cut in June, where last week odds were rather for no rate cut in...
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the US Dollar (USD) against six major currencies, recovers the nearly 0.50% loss it incurred in the opening hours in the Asian markets and trades flat near 106.60 at the time of writing on Monday. The initial move down in the US Dollar came in due to euphoria for the Euro (EUR) after the first German election results showed a firm lead for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), which will take the lead in forming a coalition. As the dust settles, this means that fundamentally, no big changes will take place in Germany...
Gold prices edged up on Monday to trade near its record peak, helped by a weaker U.S. dollar, while investors looked ahead to a key inflation report due later this week to gauge the Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory. Spot gold rose 0.3% to $2,943.50 an ounce as of 0957 GMT after scaling an all-time high of $2,954.69 last week. U.S. gold futures added 0.2% to $2,958.20. "The dollar's move lower this month has enabled spot gold to be kept around its record highs, supported by a surge of inflows into bullion-backed exchange traded funds," said Han Tan, Exinity Group chief market...