Market Commentary: Thursday 29th January

Overnight, the rally in metals continued, with gold, silver, and copper all hitting fresh record highs, driven by a softer dollar and rising geopolitical risk. Spot gold climbed 2.7% to $5,564/oz, while spot silver surged above $120/oz overnight and is currently trading at $118.24/oz. The move rippled across commodities: copper jumped 7.9% on the LME, while Brent crude climbed to its highest level since September last year.

The FOMC left rates unchanged yesterday in a 10–2 vote, with Christopher Waller and Stephen Miran dissenting in favour of a quarter-point cut. There will be two more meetings with Jerome Powell as Fed Chair. Powell indicated “clear improvement” in the US outlook and said the jobs market shows signs of steadying, signalling cautious optimism.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose following a series of tech earnings yesterday. Meta beat estimates on strong ad revenue, while Samsung’s chip unit also reported a stellar quarterly profit.

On the economic calendar today, we have more US earnings from Apple, Visa, Mastercard, and Caterpillar, along with Sweden’s rate decision at 8:30 am, South Africa’s rate decision at 1:00 pm, and US Initial Jobless Claims at 1:30 pm.

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.3%
• Bitcoin fell 1.3% to $88,155.04
• Ether fell 2.2% to $2,949.74

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