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...
EUR/USD moved higher and attempted to stay above 1.0500 during European trading hours on Thursday (5/12). The major currency pair strengthened slightly as investors tried to recover from the anticipated collapse of Michel Barnier's three-month-old government after it lost a no-confidence motion brought by a coalition of right-wing and left-wing politicians. The dismantling of the French government has plunged the economy into a deeper crisis by limiting its capacity to tame a burgeoning fiscal deficit. Right-wing and left-wing lawmakers backed the no-confidence motion against Barnier after...
EUR/USD moved higher and tried to stay above 1.0500 during European trading hours on Thursday. The major currency pair edged higher as investors tried to recover from the collapse of Michel Barnier's three-month-old government after it lost a no-confidence motion brought by a coalition of the right and left. The collapse of the French government has plunged the economy into a deeper crisis by limiting its ability to tame a growing fiscal deficit. Left and right-wing lawmakers backed the no-confidence motion against Barnier after claiming his government's budget was "flawed and detrimental"...
Silver (XAG/USD) prices moved lower to around $31.20, snapping a two-day winning streak during the early European session on Thursday. The Federal Reserve's (Fed) cautious stance on rate cuts weighed on the white metal. Federal Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the strength of the US economy means the US central bank can afford to be "a little more cautious" about its decisions on interest rate moves. Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, noted that he does not expect further rate cuts after the December meeting until March 2025 at the earliest. Increasing bets of a less...
Gold price (XAU/USD) drifts lower during the Asian session on Thursday, albeit it remains confined in a familiar range held over the past week or so amid mixed fundamental cues. The overnight hawkish remarks by FOMC members, including Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell, reaffirmed expectations that the US central bank will take a cautious stance on cutting rates. This assists the US Treasury bond yields to rebound slightly from their lowest closing levels in more than a month and turns out to be a key factor undermining the non-yielding yellow metal. Apart from this, the prevalent...
The dollar index held steady around 106.3 on Thursday after experiencing increased volatility in the previous session as investors continued to assess the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy. On Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the central bank was in no rush to cut interest rates, citing stronger-than-expected growth, a strong labor market and persistent inflation pressures. Meanwhile, data showed that U.S. service sector growth slowed more than anticipated in November. The probability of a 25 basis point rate cut in December increased to about 79%, up from 66.5%...