Commodities
FX round-up: Turkish lira plummets amid speculation emergency rate hike imminent
The biggest price action in the foreign exchange arena on Thursday was in the Emerging Markets space, amid speculation that Ankara might be forced into an emergency rate hike as soon as Thursday evening, although the standard central bank playbook was for the monetary authority to wait until the weekend, hopefully giving it time to explain its actions to market participants.
Commodities: WTI dips, UniCredit sees scope for powerful 'short covering' in copper
Commodity prices slipped on Thursday, amid slight losses in the energy complex, with trading in the main metals contracts mixed.
Sector movers: Engineers pace gains
Cyclicals were pacing gains in the market on Thursday, with Industrial Engineering and Industrial Metals&Mining leading the advance.
Global airline passenger demand rises in June - IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that in June global passenger demand growth had accelerated to 7. 8% versus a year ago.
Turkish lira withering under pressure from Washington
The souring of Turkish and US relations on Thursday sent the Turkish lira to a record low in London trading, with the currency plunging over 3% to 5. 4385 per US dollar, after an unnamed US official said that a Turkish delegation had on Wednesday refused to commit to the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being held on charges of espionage.
US weekly jobless claims print below forecasts, trend shifts lower
US jobless claims surprised to the downside, falling by 6,000 during the week ending on 4 August to reach 213,000, according to the Department of Labour.
Rise in US factory gate prices slows in July
Factory gate prices surprised slightly to the downside last month, but some economists said it was a tad too soon to call a peak in producer prices as the recent climb in crude oil prices continued to feed through.
China July CPI prints ahead of forecasts, but factory gate prices edge lower
Higher oil prices boosted the cost of living in China last month, but analysts continued to forecast lower inflation going forward, despite trade tariffs and the recent sharp weakening in the country's currency, the yuan.
US imposes sanctions on Russia over Skripal poisoning
The US government said it would impose sanctions on Russia by the end of August after determining that Moscow had been involved in the poisoning of former agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.