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...
AUD/USD extends its bull run for the fourth day in a row on Wednesday, reclaiming the area above the key 0.6600 barrier, always amid the persistent offered stance in the US Dollar as investors gauge the impact of the recently announced US federal government shutdown. The Australian Dollar (AUD) halted its strong recovery on Wednesday, prompting AUD/USD to keep its trade around the 0.6600 region following a brief knee-jerk below that key level. The pair's U-turn came from a vacillating US Dollar (USD), which managed to set aside the initial bearish tone despite mixed US data releases and...
The U.S. dollar slid to two-week lows against the yen on Wednesday after data showed private-sector jobs in the world's largest economy contracted last month, boosting expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates two more times this year. Against the euro and sterling, the dollar fell to one-week troughs in the wake of the jobs data. Data showed that U.S. private employment shrank by 32,000 jobs last month after a downwardly revised 3,000 decline in August, according to the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment...
EUR/USD is steady late during the North American session as investors digest a soft jobs report and shrugs off the shutdown of the US government. The lack of an agreement between the White House and Democrats would prolong the shutdown and delay US economic data releases. The pair trades at 1.1720 unchanged. US ADP National Employment Change in September was dismal and highlighted the weakness of the labor market. Business activity in the manufacturing sector in the US, improved but contracted for the seventh straight month. Regarding political turmoil in the US, Vice-President JD Bance...
The British Pound (GBP) advances sharply against the US Dollar (USD) on Wednesday, with GBP/USD climbing to a one-week high, reaching its strongest level since September 24, as the Greenback remains under broad pressure amid a weaker-than-expected ADP Employment Change report, the ongoing United States (US) government shutdown, and mounting bets on further Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cuts. At the time of writing, GBP/USD is trading around 1.3512, extending its winning streak for a fourth day with a gain of 0.50%. Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the Greenback's...
USD/CHF continues to trudge its way through familiar technical territory, with price action holding stubbornly just south of the 0.8000 major handle. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) continues to fight back against market expectations of a return to negative interest rates, with Swiss inflation already riding too close to zero to allow the SNB to make sharp policy moves. The US federal government has hit a slight policy snag after Congress failed to pass an interim budget spending bill that would finance government operations at the start of the federal government's fiscal year, which begins...