While Asian consumers have been an important force in the gold market, helping to offset the blow from heavy bullion-backed exchange traded fund (ETF) selling this year, they may not rescue the precious metal from its steep drop this time around, say analysts.
Gold prices fell over 2 percent on Thursday, breaking through the key...
Read more
US crude rallies to near 2-month highs on refinery demand
U.S. crude oil futures rose more than 1 percent on Thursday spurred by refiners needing oil to meet robust distillate exports and as traders bought contracts to cover short positions.
The sharp move in crude oil futures came on thin volume after the market rose to a key technical level, triggering stop losses and forcing traders...
Read more
Dollar climbs further on Fed-taper updraft
The Fed said Wednesday it would cut the size of its monthly asset purchases to $75 billion a month, beginning in January. The central bank tempered its announcement by emphasizing that interest rates would remain low “well past” the time that the unemployment rate falls below its 6.5% threshold, further emphasizing the idea that tapering...
Read more
Asia business sentiment falls in fourth-quarter as global worries weigh
(Reuters) - Business sentiment among Asia's top companies dropped sharply in the fourth quarter, extending last quarter's declines, with global economic uncertainty and rising costs weighing on the region's firms, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed.
The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asia Business Sentiment Index fell to 62 in the fourth quarter from 66 in the third quarter of 2013, the...
Read more