Real-time News

February 16th - Some staunch gold bulls are unfazed by the historic pullback in the precious metal, still anticipating a renewed surge to unprecedented levels. In late January, New York gold futures prices briefly broke a record high of $5,600 per ounce, only to suffer an unprecedented plunge the following day. During this period, one or more investors began buying December-expiring call option spread contracts with strike prices of $15,000/$20,000 on the COMEX division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Even after gold prices consolidated around $5,000, this position continued to grow, now reaching approximately 11,000 contracts. "It's truly surprising to see so many deep out-of-the-money call option spread open interest after a technical pullback," said Akash Doshi, global head of gold and metals strategy at State Street Investment Management. "Some traders may see this as a cheap lottery opportunity."

Market news: According to Bank of America's latest foreign exchange and interest rate sentiment survey, market sentiment towards the US dollar in February was at its most negative level in 14 years. Currently, short positions in the US dollar have reached their highest level since January 2012.

February 16 – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated on February 16 local time that the Russian delegation will travel to Geneva on the evening of the 16th (Moscow time) to participate in the Geneva negotiations on the Ukraine issue, in accordance with the consensus reached during the meeting between Russian and US leaders Anchorage. Russia believes that any agreement reached on the Ukraine issue must be lasting and guarantee the elimination of the root causes of the conflict. He also pointed out that the main security threat to Russia at this stage comes from European countries holding a confrontational stance.

February 16th - With the Federal Reserve poised to release a highly anticipated bank capital proposal related to Basel III, U.S. lending institutions may face new mortgage requirements. Michelle Bowman, the Federal Reserve's chief banking regulator, stated that this new measure related to residential real estate will consider increasing the "risk sensitivity" of mortgage capital requirements on banks' books. One approach is to use loan-to-value ratios to determine the applicable risk weights for residential real estate exposures, rather than using a uniform risk weight. "This change could better align capital requirements with actual risk, support on-balance-sheet lending by banks, and potentially reverse the trend of mortgage activity shifting to non-bank institutions over the past 15 years," Bowman said.

The British government has abandoned its plan to cancel local council elections.

Market news: United Airlines has selected GENX engines from General Electric Aerospace to power its new 787 Dreamliner.

German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Klingbeer: The six largest European economies want to speed up the decision-making process, and we remain transparent about it.

German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Klingbeer: This is a critical moment for Europe. We should not hide behind national interests. Germany is prepared to compromise.

German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Klingbeer: The European Central Bank has a timetable, and we can also find a good solution.

German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Klingbeer: Europe has not acted quickly enough in responding to the challenges.

Austrian Finance Minister: The ECB's usual timetable for appointing officials should be adhered to.

DownDetector, a network monitoring website, reports that 6,424 users in the UK have reported problems with the social media platform “X”.

DownDetector, a network monitoring website, reports that 11,266 users in the United States have reported malfunctions on the social media platform "X".

Canadian manufacturing inventories fell 1.2% month-on-month in December, compared with 0.1% in the previous month.

Canada's manufacturing backlog rose 0.4% month-on-month in December, compared with 0.1% in the previous month.

Canada's manufacturing new orders rose 0.2% month-on-month in December, compared with a previous reading of -1.2%.

Federal Reserve Governor Bowman: U.S. banks will see new mortgage capital requirements in the Basel program.

A Reuters poll found that 22 out of 30 economists expect UK second-quarter CPI to be higher than predicted in the February monetary policy report, and that they are more hawkish on inflation than the Bank of England.

A Reuters poll shows economists are divided on the number of interest rate cuts the Bank of England will make this year, with 18 predicting one or two cuts and 16 predicting two or three.