Moody’s affirms Microsoft (MSFT.US) AAA rating with a stable outlook.

Recently, gold has surpassed U.S. Treasury bonds to become the largest reserve asset held by central banks around the world. This change highlights a significant shift in the preference of global central banks for reserve asset allocation and also reflects the current environment of the international financial market, in which gold, with its natural risk-hedging and value-preserving properties, has gained increased favor among official reserve management institutions.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): As of the week ending August 18, speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) reduced their net long positions in WTI crude oil futures by 3,584 contracts, to a total of 102,274 contracts.

Data released by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shows that, in the week ending August 18, speculative traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) increased their net long positions in silver by 456 contracts, reaching a total of 10,768 contracts. The changes in these positions also reflect a mild increase in bullish sentiment among speculative funds regarding the short-term outlook for silver at that time. Such position shifts are usually associated with fluctuations

According to data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for the week ending August 18, speculators increased their net long positions in New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil by 320 contracts, bringing the total to 104,035 contracts, the highest level in nearly three weeks.