Ongoing violence between Iraqi government forces and Islamic militants has kept prices highly volatile. Brent crude is actually lower at $114.98 per a barrel, though still near a nine-month high of $115.71. By contrast, gold prices jumped around 3.4%, the biggest one-day gain since September 2013.
Over in the US on Thursday, the S&P 500 just about managed to reach a fresh record close following a better than expected Philadelphia Fed survey together with upbeat weekly jobless claims data for last week. The positive tone in the US was largely due to the Federal Reserve’s upbeat assessment of the US economy along with unchanged forecasts on inflation, which eased market worries that the Fed has adopted a more hawkish tone. Rather, Fed head Yellen said that she expects interest rates to stay near zero for a “considerable time” after tapering of the bond buying programme comes to an end.
Overnight in Asia stock markets were steady with little economic data to excite the market. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.2%, on track to break a four-day losing streak and within 1 percentage point of its 2014 high reached last week. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down 0.2%, climbing to its highest point since late January. Elsewhere, Australian stock markets fell to two-month lows, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.5% after seeing its best session of the year on Thursday, when it rose 1.6%.
Here in Europe, economic data is thin on the ground, with markets digesting data from Germany which showed producer price inflation dipped unexpectedly in May due to falling energy prices. Prices fell 0.2% on the month, compared to forecasts that prices would be flat. On a year on year basis, producer prices have declined by 0.8%, which is more than the 0.7% previously expected by markets.
Looking ahead, we have UK public finances data to keep an eye on, following this week’s Bank of England’s meeting minutes which signalled the possibility of earlier rate hikes. There’s no economic data out of the US this afternoon but the euro zone will publish its consumer confidence report later.
Ongoing violence between Iraqi government forces and Islamic militants has kept prices highly volatile. Brent crude is actually lower at $114.98 per a barrel, though still near a nine-month high of $115.71. By contrast, gold prices jumped around 3.4%, the biggest one-day gain since September 2013.
Over in the US on Thursday, the S&P 500 just about managed to reach a fresh record close following a better than expected Philadelphia Fed survey together with upbeat weekly jobless claims data for last week. The positive tone in the US was largely due to the Federal Reserve’s upbeat assessment of the US economy along with unchanged forecasts on inflation, which eased market worries that the Fed has adopted a more hawkish tone. Rather, Fed head Yellen said that she expects interest rates to stay near zero for a “considerable time” after tapering of the bond buying programme comes to an end.
Overnight in Asia stock markets were steady with little economic data to excite the market. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.2%, on track to break a four-day losing streak and within 1 percentage point of its 2014 high reached last week. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is down 0.2%, climbing to its highest point since late January. Elsewhere, Australian stock markets fell to two-month lows, with the S&P/ASX 200 down 0.5% after seeing its best session of the year on Thursday, when it rose 1.6%.
Here in Europe, economic data is thin on the ground, with markets digesting data from Germany which showed producer price inflation dipped unexpectedly in May due to falling energy prices. Prices fell 0.2% on the month, compared to forecasts that prices would be flat. On a year on year basis, producer prices have declined by 0.8%, which is more than the 0.7% previously expected by markets.
Looking ahead, we have UK public finances data to keep an eye on, following this week’s Bank of England’s meeting minutes which signalled the possibility of earlier rate hikes. There’s no economic data out of the US this afternoon but the euro zone will publish its consumer confidence report later.
Related Posts: