1. Oil Prices Drop On Economic Slowdown
Oil markets fell on Friday, pulled down by an economic slowdown, although OPEC supply cuts and U.S. sanctions against Venezuela provided some support. Concerns that trade disputes between the United States and China would remain unresolved, dented global economic growth prospects and pushed energy prices lower this morning. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (USOIL) crude futures stood at $52.32 per barrel by 8:15 GMT, down 30 cents, or 0.6 percent, from their last settlement. WTI dropped by around 2.5 percent the previous session. International Brent crude oil futures (CL_BRENT) were down by 22 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $61.40 per barrel, after falling 1.7 percent the previous session.*
2. Sterling Dips After Cautious BoE Warns on “Fog of Brexit”
Sterling dipped on Thursday afternoon before later recovering after the Bank of England warned about the “fog of Brexit” and its unfavourable impacts on the economy. In a widely expected move, the Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 0.75% in February. However, the endless uncertainty over Brexit and slowing global growth forced the central bank to cut its 2019 economic growth forecast. On Friday morning GBP continued on a downward trend to dip 0.1 percent against the US dollar and last trade at 1.2942 as of 8:15 GMT this morning. As Brexit uncertainty remains the biggest challenge for UK. Sterling is expected to continue to weaken in February and rebound sharply if the Brexit uncertainty fades away.**
3. Twitter Sinks On Declining User Base
Twitter closed 9.84% lower on Thursday at $30.80 after the social media company reported a drop in fourth-quarter monthly active users, marking three consecutive quarters of user decline. Twitter said it has 321 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter, in line with Wall Street forecast, but down 9 million on a yearly basis. It has posted three consecutive quarters of drops in monthly active users. As for the rest of the report, the company said it earned an adjusted $0.31 per share on $909 million revenue, topping the $0.25 and $869.5 million expected by analysts, according to Bloomberg data.***
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*Source: Reuters, Feb 8, 2019 3:25 AM GMT
**Source: FXEmpire, Feb 8, 2019 4:16 AM GMT
***Source: Business Insider, Feb 8, 2019 3:03 AM ET
