The Japanese Yen (JPY) remains on the front foot against its American counterpart and keeps the USD/JPY pair depressed below the 148.00 round figure through the early European session on Thursday. Worries about the potential economic fallout from US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs, along with bets that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will continue raising interest rates amid a broadening inflation in Japan, underpin the safe-haven JPY. Meanwhile, hawkish BoJ expectations keep the Japanese government bond yields elevated near a multi-year top. The resultant widening of the rate differential...
Oil prices fell slightly on Thursday after surging in the previous session on a bigger-than-expected draw in U.S. gasoline stocks, as the market weighed prevailing macroeconomic concerns against expectations of strong near-term demand. Brent crude futures were down 3 cents at $70.92 a barrel by 0704 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 8 cents at $67.60 a barrel. Both benchmarks rose about 2% on Wednesday as U.S. government data showed tighter-than-expected oil and fuel inventories. U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 5.7 million barrels, more than the 1.9...
Gold prices edged higher on Thursday as uncertainty over tariffs persisted, boosting demand for the safe-haven asset, while cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation also supported bullion by reinforcing expectations of a rate cut. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $2,936.31 an ounce, by 0715 GMT, while U.S. gold futures were steady at $2,946.00. "The CPI data is encouraging but I suspect that the tariff hikes are not yet reflected in the inflation data." Data showed that the U.S. consumer price index rose less than expected last month, but the increase was likely temporary against a backdrop of...
The USD/CHF pair weakened near 0.8810 during the early European session on Thursday (3/13). Concerns that US President Donald Trump's protectionism will push the US economy into recession dragged the US Dollar (USD) lower against the Swiss Franc (CHF). Investors will take more cues from the US Producer Price Index (PPI) for February and the weekly Initial Jobless Claims, due on Thursday. US inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 2.8% YoY in February from 3.0% in January, lower than the estimate of 2.9%, the Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, core...
EUR/USD corrected near 1.0860 during European trading hours on Thursday (3/13). The major currency pair fell as the Euro (EUR) faced slight pressure on a new escalation in a potential tariff war between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that he would respond to the EU's proposed retaliatory tariffs on 26 billion Euros worth of US goods. Trump's comments came just before a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, after which he said that "there is a big deficit that we have with Ireland and with other countries" and...