Yellen Will Talk Trump in Thursday’s Testimony

Further underpinning the dollar was a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who on Thursday provided a signal that USA interest rates would rise next month, in line with most market participants’ expectations.

WALL STREET: The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.2 percent to 18,903.82. The Nasdaq composite briefly touched a record high as it rose 5 points to 5,339.

The stronger dollar along with the high expectation of an interest rate hike are weighing on precious metal prices.

The most active gold contract for December delivery fell 8.2 us dollars, or 0.67 percent, to settle at 1,208.70 dollars per ounce.

Gold prices fell on Thursday to their 5-1/2-month low of $1,210.73 as U.S. dollar continued sky-rocketing.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.

The ringgit rose against the yen to 3.9874/9948 from Thursday’s 4.0216/0314 and appreciated against the euro to 4.6780/6837 from 4.7070/7158 previously.

BONDS: Bond prices inched higher.

Abercrombie & Fitch skidded 10.8 per cent to US$15.10 after the teen apparel retailer posted a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly sales.

At 10am, the ringgit was trading at 4.4030/4100 against the U.S. dollar.

Retail sales volumes jumped by 1.9 percent on the month in October after edging up 0.1 percent in September, data released by the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday, nearly double the highest forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

Brent crude, which is used to price global oils, slipped 62 cents to $45.87 a barrel in London.

It pulled back some lost ground as the dollar steadied against the euro in early afternoon trade, but remained under pressure. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slid to 2.29 percent from 2.30 percent.

Last week’s shock election of Donald Trump has sent tremors through global markets, with developed nations seeing broad gains but many in Southeast Asia anxious about his rhetoric on worldwide trade agreements. Holdings in bullion-backed exchange-traded funds dropped 8.5 metric tons to 1,940.6 tons as of Thursday, the lowest since July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The S&P 500 was up 3.93 points, or 0.18 percent, at 2,180.87.

Among emerging market currencies, the South Korean won fell 0.6 per cent, the Indonesian rupiah shed 0.3 per cent and the Mexican peso fell two per cent.

Today finds the us dollar to australian dollar spot exchange rate priced at 1.353.

The surprise outcome briefly spooked financial markets worldwide but they quickly reversed course as traders seized on tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending which Trump campaigned on as positives for the dollar. Rents increased 0.4 percent last month after rising 0.3 percent.

France’s CAC 40 fell 0.5 percent and the FTSE 100 in Britain dipped 0.3 percent.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.6 percent to 17,967.41 as the yen hit a six-month low, helping shares of the country’s big exporters. US gold futures dipped 0.7 pct to $1208.4 an ounce, after shedding almost 1 percent earlier in the day.