Author: FX

© Reuters. A factory is seen in Incheon, South Korea, May 30, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s factory activity shrank for a sixth consecutive month in December, a business survey showed on Monday, as the global economic downturn and a local truckers’ strike led to the worst slump in demand in 2-1/2 years. The S&P Global (NYSE:) purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for South Korea manufacturers fell to a seasonally-adjusted 48.2 last month from 49.0 in November. It fell again after two months of slight improvements from a more than two-year low of 47.3 reached in September,…

EUR/USD remains defensive at the highest levels in 12 days, struggles to extend two-day uptrend. Hawkish comments from ECB’s Lagarde contrast with German FinMin’s expectations and probe bulls. Holidays in multiple markets, festive mood also restrict EUR/USD moves. German PMIs for December eyed for intraday moves, major attention is on the FOMC Minutes, US FOMC and German inflation. EUR/USD treads water around the 1.0700 threshold amid holidays in the global markets during early Monday. In doing so, the major currency pair struggles to justify hawkish comments from European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde around the three-week high while struggling…

At the time of the closing bell for 2022, according to statistics provided by the World Bank, most commodities have been trending higher from 2019 to 2022. Fig.1: Commodities Price Indices. Source: World Bank Among them, annual average price index of fertilizers took the greatest leap especially after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine war and the consequential sanctions against Russian gas (an essential element for producing fertilizers), from 81.4 (2019) to 201.8 (last recorded in November 2022), an increase of +147.91%. The runner up was energy (+78.29%), followed by food (+58.05%; grains led the competition in the category at +69.10%).…

© Reuters. Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stands next to Sonia Guajajara, nominee for minister of Indigenous Peoples, during the presentation of the ministers nominated for his government at the transition government building in Brasilia, B By Anthony Boadle and Gabriel Stargardter BRASILIA (Reuters) -Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s president on Sunday, delivering a searing indictment of far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro and vowing a drastic change of course to rescue a nation plagued with hunger, poverty and racism. In a speech to Congress after officially taking the reins of Latin America’s biggest country, the leftist said democracy…

GBP/USD snaps two-day winning streak with mild losses. Another failure to cross 200-SMA triggers pullback inside one-week-old symmetrical triangle. Firmer oscillators, 1.2000 psychological magnet challenge the Cable bears. GBP/USD begins 2023 on a back foot as it prints mild losses near 1.2080 during the early hours of Monday. In doing so, the Cable pair justifies the previous day’s failure to cross the 200-SMA inside a one-week-old symmetrical triangle formation. That said, the 200-SMA level, around 1.2100 by the press time, precedes the stated triangle’s upper line near 1.2110 to restrict short-term advances of the GBP/USD prices. It’s worth noting, however,…

There are really only two camps in financial markets heading into 2023. The group that thinks the Fed has hiked too much and the economy is going into a tough recessionThe group that thinks the economy holds up and that high rates lingerPut me in the second camp, but only in the US.I can see the arguments for both and this is going to be a data-traders’ market.I believe the most-important thing to understand for 2023 is how global mortgage markets work.The US works on a 30-year fixed, which is one set payment for the entire duration of the mortgage,…

© Reuters. Play-to-earn gaming enabled by blockchain technology has grown exponentially over the few years. Gamers have embraced the opportunity to collect cryptocurrencies or ​nonfungible tokens (​NFTs​)​ that have been produced in blockchain-based games. Unique active wallets (UAWs) that used decentralized applications (DApps) in 2022. Source: DappRadarShinnosuke “Shin” Murata is the founder of blockchain games developer Murasaki. He joined Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. in 2014, doing automotive finance and trading in Malaysia, Venezuela and Bolivia. He left Mitsui to join a second-year startup called Jiraffe as the company’s first sales representative and later joined STVV, a Belgian football club,…

© Reuters Bitcoin’s (BTC) volatility remained subdued in the final few days of the last year, indicating that investors were in no hurry to enter the markets. ended 2022 near $16,500, and the first day of the new year also failed to ignite the markets. This suggests that traders remain cautious and on the lookout for a catalyst to start the next trending move.Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingViewBTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewLTC/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingViewLTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewAPE/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingViewAPE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingViewICP/USDT daily chart. Source: TradingViewICP/USDT 4-hour chart.…

Panuwat Dangsungnoen/iStock via Getty Images Seeking Contributors urged investors to buy AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV), Vertex Pharma (NASDAQ:VRTX), Genmab (GMAB) and a range of other biotechs in 2022 long before those stocks outperformed − sometimes even as the consensus view on Wall Street suggested otherwise. Here’s a rundown of Seeking Alpha editors’ picks for some of our contributors’ best biotech articles of 2022: A ‘Strong Buy’ Call on Genmab While analysts were issuing bearish calls on Danish biotech Genmab (GMAB), Seeking Alpha contributor Biologics had different thoughts. Biologics gave Genmab (GMAB) a “Strong Buy rating” shortly before the year began, noting in…

RonFullHD/iStock via Getty Images While 2022 saw the broader stock market experience its worst performance since the Great Recession, energy provided one of the few bright spots on Wall Street. Higher commodity prices lifted the profits of oil and gas drillers, making the energy segment one of the best performers among industry categories. Surging Out of the Pandemic The gains for the energy industry marked a significant reversal from 2020, when oil prices plunged into negative territory as pandemic lockdowns triggered a brief recession. Shares of Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), the biggest U.S. energy company by market value, dropped as much…