Gold prices moved little in holiday-thinned Asian trade on Monday, with the yellow metal keeping to a trading range established over the past week as traders sought more cues from upcoming U.S. inflation data.
-Oil prices fell in early Asian trade on Monday after Israel said it had “concluded” a series of strikes in southern Gaza, slightly easing concerns about supply from the Middle East.
The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Fujikura Ltd. (TYO:5803), which rose 23.85% or 300.00 points to trade at 1,558.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Nisshinbo Holdings Inc. (TYO:3105) added 9.24% or 115.00 points to end at 1,359.50 and SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) was up 8.72% or 641.00 points to 7,991.00 in late trade.
The yen was little changed at 149.395 per dollar after dipping to 149.495 earlier for the first time since Nov. 27. It slumped 0.76% in the previous session, and is set for a 0.68% slide this week.
European traders looking to Asia for direction are going to be pulled in two directions, with Hong Kong led lower by property shares as it limped into the Lunar New Year break, while Japan powered to a new post-bubble, 34-year peak.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, the latest sign of labor market strength despite a recent spike in layoffs.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices were little changed on Friday, staying on track for weekly gains, with tensions persisting in the Middle East after Israel rejected a ceasefire offer from Hamas.
Cardano was trading at $0.5321 by 03:05 (08:05 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Thursday, up 10.21% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since January 10.
Market participants believe Beijing is striking a delicate balancing act to support the economy. Signs of persistent deflationary pressure calls for more stimulus measures as fast falling prices have raised real borrowing costs, but aggressive monetary easing could revive depreciation pressure on the Chinese currency and trigger capital outflows.
Markets were now awaiting more cues on U.S. interest rates after largely dialing back expectations for early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, following a string of robust economic readings and hawkish comments from Fed officials.
