Precious metals, except for silver, ended the week on a negative note despite supportive news from the US and EU. Growing energy prices added to inflationary pressure thus bolstering inflation hedges such as precious metals. At the same time, broadly weaker US Dollar also limited the losses. Further, speculators increased their long positions in gold to the five-month high as
Statoil confirmed that it in conjunction with Repsol Sinopec and Petrobras made an oil discovery in the offshore Brazil. The initial estimate indicated the potential of 5,000 barrels of light, sweet crude oil per day and 26.5 million cubic feet of natural gas. It is the third oil discovery in the area and confirms high potential of the territory, Statoil
Italy sold about 8.75 billion Euros of six-month treasury bills with yield 1.202%, reported Italy's Treasury on Monday. The borrowing costs fell by 1.97% since last month. The demand was strong, with bids exceeding supply 1.36 times. Meanwhile, 10-year bond yield added 5 basis points approaching 5.44%, reported FactSet Research.
HSBC's yearly profits gained 15% attaining 13.8 billion British Pounds. The bank attributed its sound performance to growing revenues from fast-developing markets as Asia, Middle East, Latin America and North Africa where revenues increased by 12% over the year. These regions currently account 49% of the bank's revenue. HSBC is the most profitable among Western banks, outcompeting its rival JP
Consumers and businesses continued to withdraw money from Greece's banks at sharply increased pace in January, reported the ECB. Private deposits in the country's banks decreased by 3% on a monthly basis in January, approaching 174.9 billion Euros. Fall in the deposits in indebted countries as Portugal and Spain showed much better results, with slightly growing deposits in January.
China is not expected to loosen its prudent property policies in the nearest term but may consider some easing in a long-run, said industry expects. Such measures as limiting the amount of property one family could own and high minimum downpayments may be gradually eased after real estate prices approach reasonable level, said Carlby Xie from Colliers International. The housing
Crude oil futures edged down during the Asian trade on Monday after rallying on the indications of economic recovery in the Euro Zone and lingering supply concerns due to geopolitical tensions. Light, sweet crude oil April contract traded at 109.50 US Dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, falling by 0.25%.
Russian gold output is likely to approach 7.9 million ounces in 2015, according to the report of Interfax Europe. The country's gold output has risen by 38% during the post-Soviet Union period. Russia has the largest deposits of unexplored gold in the world and currently has over 600 companies engaged in the gold sector, including two main gold projects developers
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index climbed from 75.0 in January to 75.3 in February as Americans regained confidence about the country's economic outlook. The economists earlier predicted a figure to be at 73.0. Improvements in job market are outweighing concerns about rallying oil prices and instability in Iran, said Richard Curtin, the director of survey.
China is likely to continue facing tight power supply conditions this year as demand is growing while supply is stagnating, reported the electrical power industry association. The demand is expected to exceed supply by 30-40 million kilowatts in 2012. The electricity consumption is likely to increase by 9.5% over the year, indicating 2% slower growth pace. At the same time,
Brazil announced that developing economies are willing to provide more funds to ease Euro Zone's economic crisis in case they are given more power in the IMF, said Guido Mantega, Brazilian Finance Minister at the G20 meeting in Mexico. The minister also claimed that EU nations have to provide more their own resources to ease situation in the region.
Growing energy prices slow down global economic recovery but in case of Israel's attack on Iran the situation will become much worse. Oil price has already climbed above 10-month high on Friday and is not going to stop its upward move. The impact on the Euro Zone will be the most severe as the region is already highly indebted and
US equities traded mixed on Friday. Stock indices were supported by earnings reports on the upside but their gains were limited as the concerns about surging oil prices emerged. Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.01% or 1.74 points to 12,982.95, S&P 500 index added 0.17% or 2.28 points and closed at 1,365.74. Nasdaq Composite index soared 0.23% or 6.77 points
The trade balance of New Zealand narrowed in January, according to Statistics New Zealand. The trade balance declined to minus 199 million New Zealand Dollars on a seasonally adjusted basis in January after hitting 388 million New Zealand Dollars in December. Experts predicted the figure to approach 167 million New Zealand Dollars.
The trial over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico made by BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig was postponed for one week to enable parties to talk more on further settlement. The court hearing will resolve issues regarding civil penalties and damage claims. Currently, BP has paid 7.5 billion US Dollars for compensation and cleaning of the spill. The
Gold futures added to previous gains on Monday ahead of the ECB decision on long-term refinancing operation, called LTRO, aimed at boosting banks' lending. COMEX gold April contract traded at 1,779.15 US Dollars per troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising 0.15%.
European shares finished mostly up on Friday session, supported by banks and crude companies. Stoxx Europe 600 index added 0.3% to 264.77. German DAX index jumped 0.8% and French CAC 40 index advanced 0.6% to 6,864.43 and 3,467.03 respectively. In contrast UK FTSE 100 closed 0.05% down at 5,935.13.
The new home sales in US outperformed the expectations in January, said the Commerce Department on Friday, providing more evidence the property market in country is stabilizing. The number of new single-family homes purchases climbed to annualized 321 000. Economists questioned by Bloomberg predicted an increase to 315 000.
Canadian Dollar appreciated on Friday, reaching the highest level in four months as good economic data from US bolstered demand for riskier assets. Canadian Dollar traded CAD 0.9993 in Toronto evening session. Currently USD/CAD is trading at CAD 1.0016.
China may cut its interest rates in Q2 in view of bleak world's economic outlook, reported Xiamen University. The university predicts the central bank to lower the interest rate by 25 basis points in both Q2 and Q3 as the country's growth is expected to decelerate. Hence, after two cuts the interest rate for one-year lending will be cut to
Australian Dollar modestly weakened against Japanese Yen and US Dollar as investors were concerned Greece might experience further difficulties in tackling its debt turmoil. Aussie fell 0.1% both against Yen and greenback to JPY 86.72 and USD 1.0688. Kiwi showed similar performance, giving up 0.1% versus Dollar and Yen. Currently AUD/USD is trading at USD 1.0673 and NZD/USD is trading at USD 0.8341.
Japanese currency depreciated sharply on Monday and was trading close to 4-month record low on improved sentiment Euro Zone will resolve region's crisis and US kept showing signs of recovery. Moreover China signalled it might provide funding for containing debt turmoil through IMF and G-20 said they will involve in case Europe creates substantial financial firewall in two months. Yen
Germany should put more effort to contain region's debt crisis instead of just requiring additional money from outside, announced the Group of 20 nations. G-20 suggested Europe to expand its own financial firewall before borrowing from other countries or organizations. During Mexico meeting Germany attempted to persuade G-20 countries to inject extra capital in IMF to tackle crisis.
Australia's premier Julia Gillard won her predecessor Kevin Rudd in a leadership vote and remained the head of ruling Labour party. Gillard gained 71 votes compared to 31 in favour of Rudd's, said party representative Chris Hayes. Rudd claimed he accepts the outcome and will support current PM.