In Economy
On Thursday, Asian Indices held near 4-1/2-month highs after U.S. Federal Reserve minutes affirmed it would be “patient” on interest rate rises and risk assets got a lift from hopes of further progress in U.S.-China trade talks.
Investors eyed signs of progress in the latest round of trade negotiations between the United States and China, amid expectations that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next month to strike a deal.
On Wednesday, U.S. equity indexes ended in positive territory after minutes from the Fed’s Jan. 29-30 meeting indicated policymakers see little risk to leaving rates alone, for now.
The Fed signaled it will soon lay out a plan to stop letting go of $4 trillion in bonds and other assets, though policymakers are still debating how long their newly adopted “patient” stance on U.S. rates policy will last.
In Currency Market
The Aussie rallied more than half a percent to a two-week high of $0.72075 after the release of the figures, which showed Australia added 65,400 in full-time employment in January, with the unemployment rate steady at 5.0%.
The euro held steady at $1.1337. Purchasing manager indexes for the euro zone are due on Thursday and investors are also eyeing the release of minutes from the European Central Bank’s January meeting later in the day.
Japanese yen, the dollar was about 0.1% lower at 110.73 yen, moving off a seven-week peak of 111.13 reached last week.
The offshore Chinese yuan was steady at 6.7174 per dollar after touching its highest in about three weeks during the previous session.
China’s Foreign Min: China won't resort to Yuan depreciation for competitive purposes in trade
In Commodity Market
On Wednesday Crude prices rose more than 1% to their highest in 2019 on hopes that oil markets will balance later this year.
On Thursday, U.S. crude was last up nearly 0.1%, or 5 cents, at $57.21 per barrel. Brent was steady at $67.08. The Crude benchmark weakened recently on API stock data.
Gold rose 0.2% on the day to $1,341.20, crawling its way back up to a 10-month peak of $1,346.70 scaled on Wednesday.
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