Precious metals miners were hit by the fallout from the very hawkish press conference by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell the night before.
Powell opened the door to a higher terminal rate than expected while signalling that interest rates might need to stay higher longer.
On the back of Powell’s remarks, on Thursday the US dollar spot index was jumping by 1.43% to 112.94, even as traders waited on the release of monthly non-farm payrolls data the next day.
Front-dated COMEX gold futures were off by 1.26% on his remarks to $1,629.20/oz..
Going the other way, Big Oil was the best performer as shares of Shell climbed to a fresh one-year high.
Tobacco was higher alongside, as British American Tobacco shares bounced back from the prior day’s drop triggered by a downgrade out of Goldman Sachs.
Non-life insurance was also on the up, boosted by gains in Lancashire Holdings after the firm posted a 34.3% jump in gross premiums written for the nine months to 30 September to reach $1.3bn.
Top performing sectors so far today
Oil, Gas and Coal 8,616.43 +2.01%
Tobacco 36,230.73 +1.80%
Automobiles & Parts 1,126.74 +1.34%
Non-life Insurance 3,112.90 +1.26%
Construction & Materials 6,461.07 +1.08%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Leisure Goods 15,576.12 -3.18%
Telecommunications Service Providers 2,456.52 -3.01%
Precious Metals and Mining 9,097.82 -2.82%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,206.10 -2.27%
Chemicals 10,919.87 -2.03%
