Market Update

The United States Federal Reserve Governor, Lael Brainard, said on Thursday that the central bank remains focused on achieving full employment. This comes as the Fed is now more focused that ever before on addressing climate change as a challenge to the American and global economies, which raised some concerns …

Natural gas inventories in the United States declined by 237 billion standard cubic feet (Bcf) last week, according to data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The total natural gas in storage reached 2,281 Bcf in the week ending February 12.

Crude oil inventories in the United States declined by 7.3 million barrels last week, data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Thursday. The EIA weekly report was delayed for a day as the beginning of the week marked the Presidents Day federal holiday. Gasoline inventories increased by …

Import prices in the United States registered last month their biggest rise in about nine years, data by the U.S. Department of Labor Showed on Thursday. Following a 1% increase in December, import prices rose by 1.4% in January, signaling their biggest increase since March 2012. This comes amid a …

Housing starts in the United States decreased by 6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.58 million units in January, data by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed on Thursday. Housing starts declined by 2.3% on an annual basis, as softwood lumber prices surged by a record 73% last …

According to official figures, British consumer spending has fallen over the past week, and the proportion of people referred to reduced-pay vacations or only those who work from home has increased, as the country remains in lockdown due to the Coronavirus. Spending on debit and credit cards, as measured by …

There were 861,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending February 13, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading followed the previous print of 848,000 and came in worse than the market expectation of 765,000.

Oil prices erased gains made in early trading after Brent hit a new high in 13 months, surpassing $65 a barrel, as markets witnessed new buying due to fears that sudden cold weather in Texas could disrupt US crude production for days or perhaps weeks. Brent crude fell 3 cents, …

The Turkish central bank kept the main interest rate at 17% as expected, unchanged for the second month in a row after dramatically raising it twice in order to calm inflation, which rose to 15%. Since November, the new central bank governor, Naji Iqbal, has raised the repurchase rate (repo) …

Bitcoin rose above $52,000 for the first time in its history on Wednesday, February 17th, as the cryptocurrency rose to a record high of $52,340. Bitcoin was invented in 2009, shortly after the global financial crisis, with the transformation in protests against the banking system into something of “digital gold” …