Market Update

European shares rose on Thursday, led by gains in automakers and defense sectors, while oil stocks tumbled, as a US plan to withdraw from strategic petroleum reserves sent crude prices down. The European index rose 0.2 percent, although oil stocks fell 1.5 percent. The FTSE 100 index in London rose …

Britain’s economy grew more than expected in the last three months of 2021, when a wave of Omicron infections hit the country. The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product in the world’s fifth-largest economy rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the previous …

Japan’s Nikkei closed lower on Thursday, posting its worst quarterly performance in two years. The Nikkei closed down 0.73 percent to 27,821.43 points. The broader Topix index fell 1.08 percent to 1,946.40 points. On a quarterly basis, the Nikkei lost 3.37 percent, its biggest decline since the quarter ending in …

Data from Canada’s energy regulator showed on Wednesday that the country’s imports of crude oil in 2021 fell to their lowest level in more than three decades as domestic supplies increased. The data indicated that imports fell about 20 percent in 2021 to 473,000 barrels per day, from 579,000 barrels …

Gold fell in limited trading on Thursday, but the safe-haven metal is set for its biggest quarterly gain since September 2020, as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict made it more attractive. And gold fell in spot transactions 0.6 percent to $ 1921.55 an ounce by 0507 GMT. US gold futures fell 0.7 …

The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four US sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices. The announcement may come on Thursday, as the White House says Biden plans to …

Financial markets on Wednesday remained focused on the the continued weakening of the US dollar, where the DXY dropped a further 0.6% to the 97.80s, where it now probes mid-March lows more than 1.5% below earlier weekly highs. Economic DataPrivate sector employment in the US rose by 455,000 in March, …

The USD/JPY pair is hesitating in a narrow range of 121.32-122.24 as a broad-based buying in the Japanese yen is likely to over after the conclusion of the unlimited bond-buying program by the Bank of Japan. The four-day bond-buying program of the BOJ will conclude on Thursday. To curtail the …

WTI crude has advanced towards $106.40 but is likely to remain lackluster as investors are keeping eye on the outcome of the OPEC meeting, which is due on Thursday. The agenda of the OPEC meeting is likely to revolve around the elevation of the oil supply to contain the prohibited …

The British pound recovered some ground vs. the greenback as the market mood turned sour, courtesy of reports of the Kremlin saying that although Ukraine’s effort to fulfill some of Russia’s demands, peace talks have not reached a breakthrough. At the time of writing, the GBP/USD is trading at 1.3137.US …