The Hong Kong stock market posted moderate gains on Thursday (October 16th), with the Hang Seng Index rising 96 points, or 0.37%, to 26,007. This increase occurred despite mixed performance in the technology and financial sectors. Major tech stocks like Tencent and Alibaba rose slightly, while Xiaomi fell more than 2%. In the financial sector, HSBC and AIA weakened, but Ping An Insurance and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange posted gains. Gold-linked stocks were the market's stars, boosted by the continued record-breaking global gold price. Zijin Mining and Zhaojin Mining both rallied, while a...
The US Dollar Index (DXY) continued its strengthening for a second day and briefly hovered around 98.20 during the Asian session, driven by hawkish comments from Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid. He emphasized that the Fed must maintain credibility in combating inflation, stating that inflation remains too high, and assessing that current monetary policy is "properly calibrated." However, this encouragement is met with growing expectations of an interest rate cut, coupled with the ongoing US government shutdown. The CME FedWatch tool now projects a 94% chance of a 25 bps cut in...
Gold rises in the early Asian trade. There's a broad commodities uptrend, driven by macro uncertainty, a weaker dollar, and persistent demand for "hard" assets, says Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, in an email. "Gold's breakout above yet another round handle is simply fuelling the bullish momentum given the lack of any major selling activity," the analyst says. Gold could test next major level of $4,000/oz, with $3,900/oz broken, Razaqzada adds. Spot gold is 0.3% higher at $3,969.75/oz after earlier touching a fresh record intraday high of $3,976.18/oz, ICE...
Oil steadied after a two-day advance after OPEC+ agreed on a modest supply quota increase, with traders also parsing signals from lower-than-expected Saudi prices. West Texas Intermediate traded below $62 a barrel after a 1.3% gain on Monday, with Brent crude closing above $65. OPEC and allies including Russia decided at the weekend on a 137,000-barrel-a-day increment, while de-facto leader Saudi Arabia kept the price of its main grade to Asia unchanged in a sign of caution, surprising traders who had expected an increase. Crude posted back-to-back losses in August and September,...
USD/JPY pair edges higher to near 150.35, the highest since August 1, during the early Asian session on Tuesday. The Japanese Yen (JPY) weakens against the US Dollar (USD) on political stability concerns after Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected a new leader. Traders will keep an eye on the Fedspeak later on Tuesday. Japan's ruling party has elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader on Saturday, positioning the 64-year-old to be Japan's first female Prime Minister. Her victory caused traders to reduce bets that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will hike interest rates this month,...
WTI crude oil futures climbed 1.3% to $61.7 per barrel on Monday after OPEC+ agreed to a smaller-than-expected production increase, easing fears of a major supply surge. The group, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, said it would raise output by just 137K barrels per day in November matching October's increase despite earlier reports suggesting a much larger boost. The restrained move came amid diverging views within the alliance, with Moscow favoring a modest rise to protect prices and Riyadh pushing for a more aggressive expansion to reclaim market share. Prices were further...