Oil Steadies After Refinery Data Spurs Biggest Gain in 8 Weeks

Oil steadied after its biggest rally in eight weeks in New York as the focus shifted from rising U.S. refinery demand to the prospects for a U.S. interest rate gain this year. Futures edged 0.3 percent higher after surging 6.3 percent yesterday. U.S. refiners boosted operating rates last week, according to an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday.  Odds the Federal Reserve will move on rates at their next meeting jumped...

Gold Ends at 3-week Low as Bets for December Rate Hike Grow

Gold prices finished Thursday at their lowest levels in three weeks, a day after the Federal Open Market Committee left the door open to hiking interest rates at its December meeting. Gold for December delivery dropped $28.80, or 2.5%, to settle at $1,147.30 an ounce on Comex. That was the lowest settlement since Oct. 8. Prices had settled at a one-week high on Wednesday, but then turned lower in electronic trading after the Fed statement...

Japan Consumer Prices Fall 0.1% Before BOJ Policy Decision

The Bank of Japan’s main inflation gauge dropped for a second consecutive month as the effects of low oil prices continue to take a toll, keeping Governor Haruhiko Kuroda distant from his 2 percent inflation target. Consumer prices excluding fresh food declined 0.1 percent in September from a year earlier, after falling in August for the first time since April 2013, according to the statistics bureau. The median estimate of economists...

Rally in U.S. Shares Stalls Amid Earnings, Odds for Higher Rates

A rally in U.S. shares stalled Thursday, after equities reached a two-month high, as investors weighed corporate earnings and prospects for higher interest rates this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed at 2,089.40 at 4 p.m. in New York, near the highest level since Aug. 18, after briefly erasing losses in the final half hour. The gauge is up 8.8 percent in October, poised for its best month in four years, boosted...

European Stocks Are Little Changed Amid Earnings as Miners Slide

European stocks fluctuated before closing little changed as investors parsed mixed earnings reports, with miners sliding as the increased possibility of a Federal Reserve interest rate rise in December weighed on commodity prices. Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays Plc fell more than 6 percent as earnings disappointed. A gauge tracking resource-related stocks including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group slipped the most on the Stoxx Europe...