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 edged down on Friday, pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and Treasury yields, but a weak job growth data from the world's biggest economy prompted analysts to increase bets for a rate cut from the Federal Reserve, limiting some losses. Spot gold fell 0.2% to $2,736.28 per ounce by 1:55 p.m. ET (1755 GMT). Prices fell 1.5% on Thursday as some traders took profit after bullion hit a record high of $2,790.15. U.S. gold futures settled largely steady at 2,749.2. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 12,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain since December 2020, affected by disruptions...
Oil prices edged up on Friday on reports Iran was preparing a retaliatory strike on Israel from Iraq in coming days, but record U.S. output weighed on prices. Brent futures were up 29 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $73.10 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 23 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $69.49. At their session highs, both benchmarks were up over $2 a barrel. Brent posted a weekly decline of about 4% with WTI down about 3%. On Thursday, U.S. news website Axios reported that Israeli intelligence suggests that Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraq within days,...
EUR/USD gives up gains after facing selling pressure near the key resistance of 1.0900 in North American trading hours on Friday. The major currency pair drops as the US Dollar (USD) bounces back strongly in the aftermath of the United States (US) Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data for October. Initial reaction from the US Dollar was negative, however, it rebounded strongly, with the US Dollar Index (DXY) returning back above 104.00. The report showed that the economy added 12K fresh payrolls, significantly lower than estimates of 113K and the former release of 223K, downwardly revised from 254K...
Silver was trading near 32.6USD/troy on Friday, close to 2-week low as investors continued to assess Fed policy outlook and demand for safety ahead of the upcoming US elections.The ISM manufacturing PMI fell more than expected but mostly becouse the price pressures intensifed. Earlier, the labout data showed US jobs creation slowed much more than anticipated but mostly due to strikes and distortions related to hurricanes. Still, silver prices are expected to finish the week at least 3% lower as economic data from Eurozone, combined with the UK's new government budget reeinforced the view of...
The Japanese Yen (JPY) retraces some of its recent gains following the release of the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) by Jibun Bank and S&P Global on Friday. However, the USD/JPY pair declined as the JPY strengthened after post-meeting comments from Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda on Thursday, which were seen as increasing the likelihood of a rate hike in December. The headline au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing PMI stood at 49.2 in October, indicating a decline from 49.7 in September. This composite single-figure indicator shows that Japanese manufacturing...