Thursday,08 August 2024 16:40:33

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Thursday,08 August 2024 at 15:37

U.S. Stocks Rally on upbeat weekly jobless claims data after coming under pressure over the course of the previous session, stocks have moved sharply higher during trading today. The major averages have all shown strong moves to the upside, more than offsetting yesterday's losses.

Gold prices inched higher while the dollar slipped amid bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates aggressively to combat a slowing economy. Heightened geopolitical tensions and concerns about an economic slowdown in China and the U.S. also helped bullion gain some traction today.

Oil prices traded lower after having risen nearly 3 percent in the previous two sessions on concerns over the possibility of a retaliatory strike from Iran on Israel. The downside, however, remained capped after government data showed a steep draw in U.S. crude stockpiles.

Also, Libya's National Oil Corporation has declared force majeure on all crude loadings from the Sharara oil field with immediate effect.

In corporate news, Beazley raised its guidance for 2024 after its combined operating ratio and pretax profit for the first half topped hopes, sending shares higher.

Beazley reported a pretax profit of $728.9 million, a wide beat to consensus estimates taken from a Visible Alpha poll of $428.6 million and roughly double the previous year's $366.4 million. The boost was due to better-than-expected claims experience.

Markets

16:33

FTSE 100 8,141 -0.32%

FTSE 250 20,504 -0.36%

DAX 17,645 +0.19%

16:35

Dow Jones 39,268 +1.30%

S&P 500 5,284 +1.63%

NASDAQ 16,494 +1.83%

Fixed Income

UK 10-YR YIELD 3.975

Exchange Rates

GBP/USD 1.2727

GBP/EUR 1.1665

Commodities

Gold $2,417 +1.47%

Brent $78.86 +0.39%

Important - No news or research item should be construed as a recommendation to trade. The inclusion of securities within this report does not necessarily imply their suitability for individual portfolios or situations in respect of which further advice should be sought. Information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable but is not warranted to be accurate or complete.