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 U.S. dollar rose on Friday, a day after falling on a surge in U.S. jobless claims and modest inflation, as investors expected the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next week after a roughly nine-month hiatus. The greenback rose 0.3% to 147.66 yen, on track for its largest percentage gain in 10 days, after rising for three straight weeks. The dollar firmed earlier on Friday after a U.S.-Japanese joint statement affirmed exchange rates should be "market determined" and that excess volatility and disorderly moves in exchange rates were undesirable. The dollar index was up 0.1% at...
Oil prices continued their rally amid growing concerns that Ukrainian drone attacks could disrupt oil flows through Russia's two most important crude export hubs on the Baltic coast. Brent crude rose above $67 per barrel, after falling 1.7% on Thursday. The attacks have halted operations at Primorsk, the region's main oil loading port, and three pumping stations that deliver crude to the Ust-Luga hub, a source familiar with the situation said. This increased risk premium offsets the International Energy Agency's (IEA) projection for a record-breaking oil supply surplus next year. The IEA's...
The EUR/USD pair lost ground early in the European session and retreated to levels near 1.1700, amid volatile and volatile trading on Friday. Comments from ECB official Olly Rehn, who warned of downside risks to inflation, failed to support the euro (EUR), which remained weighed down by a stronger US dollar. On Thursday, the ECB maintained its Deposit Facility rate at 2%, and President Christine Lagarde said that "risks to economic growth have become more balanced." These comments dampened market expectations of further rate cuts in the near future and provided a significant boost to the...
Oil prices held steady on Friday (September 12th) as concerns about oversupply and weakening U.S. demand offset the risk of supply disruptions stemming from conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Brent crude futures rose 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $66.49 a barrel at 08:54 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 4 cents to $62.41. Brent and WTI benchmarks fell 1.7% and 2%, respectively, on Thursday. The International Energy Agency's monthly report on Thursday stated that global oil supply will rise faster than expected this year due to planned production increases by the OPEC+ group,...
Gold (XAU/USD) trims a part of its intraday gains, though it sticks to positive bias through the first half of the European session on Friday and remains close to the record high touched earlier this week. Softer labor market data overshadowed a higher-than-expected US consumer inflation reading on Thursday and lifted bets for a more aggressive policy easing by the Federal Reserve (Fed). This, in turn, keeps the US Dollar (USD) depressed near its lowest level since July 24 and continues to benefit the non-yielding yellow metal. Apart from this, political turmoil in France and Japan, along...