Oil prices rose in early Asian transactions today, Thursday, supported by indications of lack of supply and optimism about the recovery of demand from China, and gold prices jumped to the highest level in two weeks in early Asian transactions, in contrast, the dollar fell to its lowest level in 3 months against the Japanese yen.
By 01:15 UTC, Brent crude futures prices increased to $87.02 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.2% to $80.71 a barrel.
And the Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced yesterday, Wednesday, the easing of anti-Covid-19 restrictions, a day after clashes between protesters in Guangzhou (south of the country) and the police, amid a series of protests against the most severe restrictions to combat Covid-19 in the world.
But the consumer price index in China revealed yesterday, Wednesday, that corporate activity contracted more last November, which raises concerns about the next year, and it is expected that the supply of crude oil will remain limited.
And the US Energy Information Administration stated that US crude stocks decreased by about 13 million barrels, which is the largest level since 2019 in the week ending November 25, but US crude production exceeded 12 million barrels per day, which is the highest level since before the outbreak of the Corona virus. .
An informed source told Archyde.com yesterday, Wednesday, that the decision of the “OPEC Plus” group to hold its meeting on the fourth of December indicates a low possibility of changing policy, which limited oil gains.
Gold at the highest level
Gold prices jumped to the highest level in two weeks in early Asian transactions today, Thursday, after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman (US Central Bank) Jerome Powell reinforced expectations of raising US interest rates at lower rates.
By 00:39 UTC, spot gold rose 0.4% to $1,775.77 an ounce, after touching the highest level since last November 16, and US gold futures increased 1.7% to $1,788.90 an ounce.
Gold ended last November’s transactions, up by more than 8%, which is the highest monthly rate of increase since July 2020.
For other precious metals:
- Silver increased to $22.26 an ounce.
- Platinum rose to 1038.46 dollars an ounce.
- Palladium rose to 1892.35 dollars an ounce.
The dollar is falling
The dollar fell to its lowest level in 3 months against the yen on Thursday, as investors focused on Powell’s comments about the possibility of slowing the pace of interest rate hikes.
The US currency fell in the latest transactions by 1.32% to 136.295 yen, after it fell to 136.205 yen, marking its lowest level against the Japanese currency since August 26.
The relationship between the dollar and the yen is very sensitive to any changes in the long-term US Treasury bond yields, which fell last night after Powell’s statements, approaching their lowest levels in two months at 3.6%, and the yield in the latest transactions in Tokyo reached 3.6163%.
Markets are assessing the possibility that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by 50 basis points at its next meeting.
And the dollar index – which measures the performance of the US currency against 6 major currencies, including the yen and the euro – continued its decline from yesterday’s session, Wednesday, by more than 1%; It fell by another 0.28%, to 105.48 points.
The index fell 5.2% in November, its worst monthly performance since September 2010.