Market Updates

Forex

• The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies inched up 0.06% to 95.552 by 12:39 PM ET (5:39 AM GMT).
• The USD/JPY pair edged up 0.10% to 115.61.
• The AUD/USD pair inched down 0.05% to 0.7174, while the NZD/USD pair inched up 0.01% to 0.6883.
• A stubbornly range-bound EUR/USD which has shown unresponsiveness to European Central Bank (ECB) speakers may break below 1.1400 today as another acceleration in US core inflation could lift the dollar, economists at ING report.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Commodities

In accordance with Yahoo Finance, Gold futures inched down 0.08% to $1,835.05 by 11:55 PM ET (4:55 AM GMT), near Wednesday's high of $1,835.60. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Thursday, while Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields were off their November 2019 highs Gold’s most active contract on New York’s Comex, April, settled up $14, or 0.8%, at $1,821.80 an ounce, after a session high just shy of $1,825. It was the biggest one-day point and percentage gain for the benchmark gold futures contract since Jan. 19 and the highest settlement since Jan. 26.

 

In other precious metals, silver and platinum were down 0.3% while palladium was steady at $2,279.51.

 

Oil

Oil was mixed on Thursday morning in Asia, with an unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories giving the black liquid a boost during the previous session. Investors are now focusing on the outcome of U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, with a successful outcome potentially adding supply to a tight market.
Brent oil futures inched down 0.01% to $28.09 by 11:27 PM ET (4:27 AM GMT), while WTI futures inched up 0.03% to $24.95, as per Yahoo Finance.

 

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin briefly breached the $45,000 milestone for the first time in roughly a month overnight, according to CoinMarketCap. It later dipped back below that mark and was last trading around $44,800 per coin. It's not clear what caused the latest surge, but the cryptocurrency'sprice has been improving in recent days. It finally cleared $40,000 again last Friday after weeks of losses.

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