Heading into the European open, European shares were being weighed down by energy stocks which saw big losses due to falling oil prices, while investors looked ahead to important U.S. economic data and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Oil prices fell over 3% due to the possibility of a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal, which could lift sanctions and increase supply. Big oil companies like BP and Shell saw their shares drop by 5% and 3%, pulling down the main stock index.
Gold prices faltered once more with the precious metal printing an Asian session low of around the $3125/oz handle before recovering to trade around $3158/oz at the time of writing.
For a technical outlook on Gold read Gold (XAU/USD) Slides 2.2% to One-Month Lows. $3150 incoming?
Looking at US equities, the mood remained positive in the Asian session as markets still digest a US-China trade truce, a UK agreement, and major Gulf deals which have boosted investor confidence.
The S&P 500 went up by 0.1% overnight, and the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5%, driven by Nvidia’s gains, which erased its 2025 losses.
Following the European open however, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have turned red for the day, trading 0.57% and 0.85% lower respectively.
On the FX front, safe-haven currencies like the Japanese yen and Swiss franc strengthened, with the yen rising 0.6% to 145.88/USD after hitting a one-month low of 148.65 earlier this week. The Swiss franc also gained 0.6%, reaching 0.8376/USD.
The euro increased by 0.2% to 1.12. A Bloomberg report on Wednesday mentioned that the US is not pushing for a weaker dollar in tariff talks, which helped ease market worries.
The dollar index, which tracks the dollar against six other currencies, fell 0.2% to 100.81 but is still set to gain 0.4% for the week. However, the index is down nearly 7% for 2025.
Currency Power Balance
