investingLive Asia-Pacific Market news: Oil edges up, small move
- Trump orders more tariffs, this time up to 100% on drone imports. Cites security.
- Follow-up: Latvia shoots down drone hours after issuing air threat alert
- EUR risk: Latvia issues air threat alert, Finland restricts Gulf of Finland traffic
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.7878 (vs. estimate at 6.7413)
- Franklin Templeton stays bullish on stocks, leans into AI and US
- Yen intervention could come again at any yen level, ex-official Furusawa
- UBS sees more room to run for stocks, favours broader global exposure
- OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate has surpassed $40 billion says a Bloomberg report
- ICYMI – Barkin says rate path unclear as sticky inflation meets resilient economy
- NZ manufacturing growth cools to 54.3 in July after June’s surge
- Fed’s Goolsbee says inflation data improving, hopes tariff effects fade
- Reddit to join S&P 500 index, Shares have jumped higher in after hours trade.
- ICYMI – Hawkish Fed’s Hammack says acting now on inflation is really critical
- Oil settles down circa 2% on weak demand outlook and hefty US crude build
- SEC abruptly pulls Friday crypto rules meeting, cites scheduling issue
- Fitch affirms US at AA+, keeps outlook stable amid growth slowdown
- UAE’s Adnoc says two of its vessels attacked in Hormuz
- Its the 'what’d I miss?’ post! Oil falls despite Hormuz chaos, S&P 500 record high
- investingLive Americas market news wrap: S&P 500 hits a fresh record
Summary:
- Oil ticked higher after the US threatened an indefinite naval blockade of Iran on Thursday, and Treasury Secretary Bessent flagged unprecedented new economic measures against Tehran for next week
- ADNOC confirmed two of its vessels were struck while transiting the Strait of Hormuz
- Gold slipped, dipping under 4,320 dollars at one stage
- Chicago Fed’s Goolsbee struck a more upbeat inflation tone than Hammack and Barkin, saying recent data has been a little better and hoping tariff and oil driven pressures prove temporary
- USD got a small pop on Latvia’s air threat alert and Finland’s Gulf of Finland restriction, before easing back to end the session lower
- Furusawa reiterated the yen is too weak and that fresh Japan-US intervention is possible at any time; USD/JPY dribbled back under 159.40
- Reddit shares jumped over 8.5% after hours on confirmation of its S&P 500 inclusion, effective August 18
- Australia’s Albanese and Trump held a call in which Trump agreed to consider reversing the 12.5% tariff on Australian exports
Oil prices edged higher during the Asian session on Friday after the United States threatened an indefinite naval blockade of Iran, reviving supply concerns a day after crude fell on a weaker demand outlook and a large build in US inventories. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight" program the administration would soon unveil what he described as unprecedented economic measures against Tehran, saying the approach would combine historic economic isolation with the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Separately, ADNOC confirmed two of its vessels were struck while transiting the strait, part of a mounting toll on shipping through the waterway since the war began.
Gold moved in the opposite direction, slipping to under 4,320 dollars an ounce at one stage during the session.
On the Fed, Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee offered a more optimistic read than his colleagues Beth Hammack and Tom Barkin earlier in the day, saying in a Fox News interview that recent inflation data has been a little better and that he is hopeful the trend continues. Goolsbee attributed much of the current inflation to tariffs and higher oil prices tied to the Iran war, both of which he had hoped would prove one-off increases, and said working through those pressures could put the economy back on what he called a golden path toward the Fed’s 2% target.
The US dollar saw a brief pop after Latvia issued an air threat alert and Finland imposed a temporary restriction on aviation and maritime traffic in the eastern Gulf of Finland within minutes of each other. Speculation centred on whether the incidents involved drones tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine that had drifted off course, or represented a further example of Russian harassment of NATO’s eastern neighbours. The dollar ultimately gave back that gain and finished the session lower.
In FX, Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Japan’s former top currency diplomat, told Reuters the yen remains clearly too weak at current levels and is hurting the economy through higher import costs, adding that Japan and the US could conduct joint intervention again at any time rather than at a fixed level. USD/JPY dribbled back under 159.40 during the session.
Elsewhere, Reddit shares jumped more than 8.5% in after-hours trade after S&P Dow Jones Indices confirmed the platform will join the S&P 500 before markets open on August 18.
In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke with President Trump, with Trump agreeing to consider reversing the 12.5% tariff currently applied to Australian exports.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.