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 US dollar strengthened in thin holiday-affected trading on Tuesday, maintaining recent strength as traders brace for fewer Federal Reserve interest rate cuts in 2025. At 4:25 AM ET (09:25 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was trading 0.1% higher at 107.905, near a recent two-year high. The dollar has been in demand since the Federal Reserve outlined a hawkish outlook for interest rates after its final policy meeting of the year last week, projecting just two rate cuts of 25 basis points in 2025. In fact, markets are now...
Gold (XAU/USD) prices struggled to capitalize on their modest intraday gains on Tuesday and remained below multi-day highs set the previous day amid mixed fundamental cues. Geopolitical risks stemming from the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war and tensions in the Middle East, along with trade war concerns, continued to lend support to the safe-haven precious metal. However, the Federal Reserve's (Fed) hawkish policy shift kept a lid on the commodity. The US central bank last week signaled it would slow the pace of interest rate cuts in 2025. The outlook remains supportive of a pickup in the US...
Oil prices rose on Tuesday, reversing the previous session's losses, supported by a slightly positive near-term market outlook, despite thin trading ahead of the Christmas holiday. Brent crude futures rose 42 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $73.05 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 38 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $69.62 a barrel by 0742 GMT. Changes in supply and demand in December have supported their less bearish outlook so far, analysts said in a note. A plan by China, the world's biggest oil importer, to issue 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) worth of special bonds next...
The USD/CHF pair posted modest gains near 0.8990 during the early European session on Tuesday.The prospect of higher US interest rates in the longer term continues to support the greenback for now. Trading volumes are likely to thin out as the year-end approaches. The Federal Reserve (Fed) projections outlined a slower pace of interest rate cuts than traders had expected, supporting the US Dollar (USD). The Summary of Economic Projections, or ‘dot-plot', indicated a half-percentage-point rate cut in 2025, compared to a full percentage point cut projected in September. Data released by the...
The Australian Dollar (AUD) weakened for the second straight day against the US Dollar (USD) on Tuesday following the release of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) December monetary policy meeting minutes. Trading activity is expected to be subdued ahead of the Christmas break. The RBA minutes indicated that the board had become more confident about inflation since the previous meeting, although risks remained. The board stressed the need for monetary policy to remain "moderately tight" until there was greater certainty about inflation. The RBA board also noted that if future data were in...