publication date :
Saturday
06:05 2022-12-10
Global markets have witnessed a state of extreme confusion over the past week, akin to a game of musical chairs.
Oil finished with the biggest weekly loss in two months, while gold rallied in hopes of slowing the pace of US interest rate hikes, while equities, especially US stocks, suffered deep losses.
Oil falls and records the largest weekly losses Oil prices stabilized in volatile trade yesterday, with the two benchmarks posting the biggest weekly losses in several months, amid growing recession fears erasing the impact of supply concerns on the back of weak data in China , Europe and the United States.
US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 44 cents to $71.02 a barrel when it stabilized, its lowest level in 2022. Brent crude futures fell five cents to $76.10 a barrel when it stabilized. stabilized.
Oil prices gained some support and rose more than 1% at the start of the session after Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country, the world’s largest energy exporter, could cut production in response to the imposition of a cap on its crude oil exports.
However, a slightly stronger-than-expected rise in US producer prices in November and news of the partial restart of the Keystone pipeline trimmed crude gains and sent the two benchmarks down more than $1 a barrel. The Keystone Line was shut down earlier this week after a 14,000-barrel oil spill in Kansas.
The two benchmarks recorded weekly losses of about 10% each, in the largest weekly declines in percentage terms for US crude since early August and Brent since April.
In China, economists said the high number of Corona infections is likely to dampen economic growth in the coming months, despite the easing of some restrictions, leading to a recovery, but later in 2023.
Gold is going up
Gold prices rallied yesterday despite rising dollar and US Treasury yields as some investors still expect the Federal Reserve (Central Bank of the United States) to slow the pace of interest rate hikes , starting early next year.
And gold in instant transactions rose 0.5% to $1798.40 an ounce by 1907 GMT. And US gold futures rose 0.5% to hit $1810.70 at settlement time.
“The market appears to be focused on the light at the end of the tunnel, where the Federal Reserve has had enough of raising interest rates, and as a result we have seen general support for gold prices,” he said. David Meagher, director of metals traded at Hyde Ridge Futures.
Data showed that US producer prices rose more-than-expected in November, adding to market uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook.
In other precious metals, silver was up 1.8% to $23.48 and platinum was up 2.1% to $1024.00. Palladium rose 1.7% to $1,958.79.
US stocks close lower
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed lower yesterday as investors evaluate economic data and expect the Federal Reserve (the central bank of the United States) to hike interest rates by 50 basis points at its next monetary policy meeting week.
Data showed that the US producer price index rose slightly more than expected in November due to a rise in the cost of services, but the trend has eased, with factory price inflation registering smallest increase in half a year.
According to preliminary data, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 29.42 points, or 0.74%, to close at 3934.09 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 77.40 points, or 0.70 %, to 11004.60 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 306.67 points, or 0.91 percent, to 33474.81 points.
