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 Australian Dollar (AUD) continued its gains against the US Dollar (USD) for the second straight day on Tuesday, rising from 0.6131, its lowest level since April 2020. The AUD/USD pair strengthened as the AUD benefited from strong commodity prices. US President-elect Donald Trump's economic team believes that gradually increasing import tariffs is boosting investor confidence, supporting risk-sensitive currencies such as the AUD and contributing to the appreciation of the AUD/JPY pair. Source: FXStreet
Gold (XAU/USD) prices maintained their positive bias through the early European session on Tuesday, albeit lacked bullish conviction and remained below one-month highs touched the previous day. Reports that US President-elect Donald Trump's top economic adviser is considering a gradual tariff hike to prevent a sudden spike in inflation triggered a modest pullback in the US Treasury bond yields. This, in turn, kept the US Dollar (USD) pressured below two-year highs touched on Monday and provided some support to the commodity. Meanwhile, easing concerns about disruptive trade tariffs under...
Oil prices slipped at market open on Tuesday (14/1) but remained near four-month highs as Chinese and Indian buyers sought new suppliers in the wake of the Biden administration's toughest sanctions yet on Russian oil. Brent futures slipped 22 cents, or 0.27%, to $80.79 a barrel by 0122 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 16 cents, or 0.2% to $78.66 a barrel. That followed roughly 2% gains in Monday trading, after the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas as well as 183 vessels that trade oil as part of Russia's...
The dollar index held steady around 109.6 on Tuesday, near a more than two-year high hit in the previous session. Signs of continued resilience in the U.S. economy prompted traders to scale back expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut this year. Investors are also bracing for key inflation data this week, which could further influence the outlook for interest rates. Markets are now pricing in just 29 basis points of easing this year, a sharp drop from the 50 basis points forecast earlier this month. A quarter-point rate cut that was expected is now likely to be delayed until...
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude benchmark, was trading around $77.25 on Tuesday (14/1). WTI prices rose to their highest since Oct. 8 as US sanctions on Russian oil threatened to tighten global supplies. The US administration of President Joe Biden has imposed new sanctions on Russian oil giants Gazprom and Surgutneftegaz, as well as 183 oil tankers, often referred to as Russia's ‘Shadow Fleet'. Growing concerns over supply disruptions could support the black gold in the near term. "Supply is the key near-term driver, with Biden's new sanctions on Russia's two major oil...