Category: Flash News

On May 17th, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as of the week ending May 13th, speculators’ net long position in COMEX gold decreased by 1433 contracts to 110874 contracts; COMEX silver futures speculative net long position decreased by 1788 lots to 28460 lots; COMEX copper futures speculative net long position increased by 1443 lots to 24780 lots; The net short position in NYMEX platinum has increased to 3650 contracts, setting a new three week high; The net short position in NYMEX palladium has increased to 12420 contracts.

On May 17th, the settlement price of international crude oil futures rose by over 1%, with a cumulative increase of over 2% this week. WTI June crude oil futures closed up $0.87, or 1.41%, at $62.49 per barrel, with a cumulative increase of 2.41% for the week. Brent crude oil futures for July closed up $0.88, or 1.36%, at $65.41 per barrel, with a cumulative increase of 2.35% for the week.

On May 17th, OpenAI plans to build a large new data center in the United Arab Emirates, which may eventually become one of the largest data centers in the world. This is not only a significant investment for the company in the Middle East, but also an important expansion of its global AI infrastructure expansion plan. According to insiders, the ChatGPT developer is expected to become one of the main tenants of the recently announced Abu Dhabi 5GW data center park. OpenAI’s participation has not been finalized yet, but the official announcement may be made in the near future.

On May 17th, the 6th European Political Community Leaders’ Meeting was held in Tirana, the capital of Albania. About 50 national and regional leaders, as well as leaders of EU institutions, attended the meeting, focusing on European security and economic challenges. The theme of this conference is “New Europe in the New World: Unity, Cooperation, Joint Action”, which is the first time that the European Political Community has held a conference in the Western Balkans region. During the meeting, the leaders discussed issues such as European security and defense, competitiveness and economic security, and migration, focusing on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as innovation, digital infrastructure, energy sustainability, and supply chain security. The meeting was co chaired by European Council President Costa and Albanian Prime Minister Rama. Costa stated that Europe should continue to deepen and expand global trade cooperation, not succumb to protectionism, but instead strive for mutually beneficial partnerships and abandon zero sum thinking. Rama called on the European political community to pay more attention to education, science, and artificial intelligence, so that non EU regions can also become investment frontiers.

On May 17th, the Office of the United Nations Spokesperson stated on the 16th local time that the United Nations welcomes the talks held in Istanbul that day. The spokesperson said, “We hope that this process can achieve a comprehensive, immediate, and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, which is an important step towards creating conditions for a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in Ukraine. This goal should comply with the United Nations Charter, international law, and relevant United Nations resolutions.” The United Nations emphasized its willingness to support all meaningful efforts to help achieve this goal.

On May 17th, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called for the Fed to provide the public with a more comprehensive explanation of its interest rate decisions and a more in-depth analysis of potential forecast scenarios. In his prepared speech for Friday’s meeting at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, Bernanke said, “Releasing specific alternative scenarios and their potential impacts can drive a subtle but important shift in the Fed’s communication strategy

On May 16th, all three major European stock indexes closed higher, with the German DAX index rising 0.3% to 23767.43 points, the French CAC40 index rising 0.42% to 7886.69 points, and the UK FTSE 100 index rising 0.59% to 8684.56 points.

On the evening of May 16th, the State Administration for Financial Regulation disclosed the main regulatory indicators for the banking and insurance industries in the first quarter of 2025. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, the total domestic and foreign currency assets of China’s banking and financial institutions amounted to 45.83 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. The total assets of insurance financial institutions (excluding professional insurance intermediaries) amounted to 37.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.9 trillion yuan or 5.4% from the beginning of the year. The total assets of the banking and insurance industries maintained growth. Since the beginning of this year, financial services in the banking and insurance industries have continued to strengthen. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, the balance of inclusive small and micro enterprise loans from banking and financial institutions was 35.3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. The balance of inclusive agricultural loans was 13.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 795.5 billion yuan from the beginning of the year. In the first quarter of 2025, the original insurance premium income of insurance companies was 2.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%; Compensation and payment expenses amounted to 827.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.2%; The number of newly added insured items reached 24.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.7%.

On May 16th, Lane, Chief Economist of the European Central Bank, stated that the ECB will update its monetary policy related strategies in the second half of 2025. The central bank expects to include an assessment of the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs in June. The release of interest rate path expectations will create unexpected expectations. Releasing a conditional interest rate path would ’embarrass the European Central Bank’. It is expected to set standards to guide the European Central Bank’s response function in response to shocks. This response function guide should be updated regularly. The information revealed through interest rate determination is an ‘effective function’.

On May 16th, a spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the department has requested 20000 members of the National Guard to assist in the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants. The spokesperson stated that the Department of Homeland Security will use all available tools and resources to deport illegal immigrants, including gang members, murderers, and other violent criminals.