Category Archives: Market Insights

Elon Musk has pulled out of a protracted and tumultuous bid to purchase social media platform Twitter, making the announcement through an SEC filing. The deal was first proposed by Musk after he revealed that he had accumulated over 9% of Twitter earlier this year. Should the deal have gone through, Musk would be payingContinue Reading

On Wednesday afternoon (GMT+3), the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures for June were released, showing that consumer prices grew by 9.1% year-on-year, the fastest pace of inflation growth since November 1981. This is higher than the forecast of 8.8% and May’s figure of 8.6%. Meanwhile, Core CPI increased 0.7% month-on-month, higher than analyst estimatesContinue Reading

On Thursday evening (GMT+3), the US Initial Jobless Claims data was released, showing that 235,000 people filed for unemployment insurance for the first time in the week of July second. This is the highest since January this year, and up from the forecasted 230,000 and the previous month’s 231,000. Continuing claims, whose data is releasedContinue Reading

On Wednesday (GMT+3), the US Energy Information Administration reported a decrease of 2.762 million barrels in its crude oil inventories for the week of 24 June. This is more than the forecasted decrease of 569,000 barrels and the previous week’s decrease of 386,000.  Meanwhile, gasoline stocks increased by 2.6 million barrels, while production averaged 9.5Continue Reading

Fighting rampant inflation has become the Fed’s main objective, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s words to the US House Financial Services Committee during his semi-annual testimony might have sparked more than a few fears about a recession. Specifically, it means that the Fed might be ready to cause increased unemployment or even a recession –Continue Reading

On Wednesday afternoon, 22 June, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made his semi-annual testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. In his testimony, Powell highlighted that the Fed was “strongly committed” to bringing down inflation and that the American economy is in a strong position to handle the continued rate hikes. However, Powell has also noted thatContinue Reading

On Wednesday evening (GMT+3), the US Federal Reserve announced a rate hike of 0.75% or 75 basis points, up from the last rate hike of 50 points. This is the largest Fed interest rate hike in 28 years, and brings the benchmark interest rate to between 1.50% – 1.75%, a number last seen just beforeContinue Reading

To boost the slowing US solar industry, Biden has ordered that regulators turn a blind eye to potential trade regulation violations by Chinese solar panel manufacturers and let them go unpunished for the next two years. This is with the hopes that an influx of cheap, foreign solar panels into the US will speed upContinue Reading

On Wednesday evening (GMT+3), the US EIA Crude Oil Inventories data was released. For the Week of 3 June, US inventories of crude increased by 2.025 million barrels. This is compared to the forecasted draw of 1.917 million, and the previous week’s draw of 5.068 million.  Meanwhile, distillate inventories saw a rise of 2.592 millionContinue Reading

On Wednesday evening (GMT+3), the US ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers‘ Index (PMI) figure for May was released. May showed a reading of 56.1, higher than the forecasted 54.5 and the previous month’s value of 55.4. The ISM Manufacturing PMI measures product demand from over 300 key manufacturers in the US and is considered a majorContinue Reading