Market Update

Trafigura suffers a $577 million loss on nickel shipments in what the company calls a systemic fraud. The commodities trading giant discovered some of the metal cargoes it bought were missing nickel. A full container of nickel, an expensive metal that is typically traded in large volumes, can be worth …

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 226 points, or 0.7%. The S&P 500 added 0.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.8% on Thursday. Disney shares gained more than 2% after the company posted smaller-than-expected subscriber losses along with earnings and revenue that beat estimates. The stock pared gains after CEO …

There were 196,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending February 4, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week’s print of 183,000 and came in slightly worse than the market expectation of 190,000. The publication revealed that …

Gold rose on Thursday, supported by the decline in the dollar, but prices are expected to be trapped in a limited range as traders await economic data, seeking indications about the path of the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. And by 1029 GMT, spot gold rose 0.4 percent to …

Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s largest bank, may renew a potential offer for British bank Standard Chartered once the freeze rules associated with its previous bid, which it retracted, expire. Standard Chartered shares jumped 9 percent after the report. A Standard Chartered spokesman …

European stocks touched a nine-month high on Thursday, supported by earnings data from companies including Germany’s Siemens and Britain’s AstraZeneca, which helped ease concerns raised by Federal Reserve officials after they stressed the need for more interest rate hikes. The Stoxx 600 index of European shares rose 0.8 percent by …

On Thursday, the dollar hovered near the average prices it recorded during the last period against the major currencies, while investors evaluated the comments issued by a number of Federal Reserve officials, as well as anticipating the consumer price inflation data scheduled to be published next week. The dollar index, …

Japan’s Nikkei closed lower on Thursday, retreating from its highest level in nearly two months, as the benchmark tracked the weak performance on Wall Street after investors had long been wary of higher US interest rates. The earnings season witnessed a mixture of winners and losers among the major companies. …

Oil rose in early trading on Thursday, extending its gains for the fourth day in a row, as crude loading disruptions in Turkey and optimism about the continued recovery of demand in China boosted sentiment. By 0239 GMT, Brent crude futures were up 14 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $85.26 …

The GBP/USD pair trades around 1.2070, holding on to modest intraday gains. The Euro is one of the weakest rivals of the US dollar. The shared currency is trading at 1.0716 as ECB policymakers repeated their hawkish language. ECB’s Klaas Knot said that headline inflation appears to have peaked but …