Gold and Silver continue rising strongly, with Gold trading at a new all-time high today above $5,260.
- Precious metals remain very much in focus as Gold rises strongly to trade above $5,260 after easily breaching the psychologically significant round number at $5,000 earlier this week. Silver is also gaining and rising strongly towards its record high made 2 days ago above $117. Many analysts see these continuing bullish movements as caused by a perfect storm of fear of erratic US leadership/policies, trend FOMO, weak monetary policies, and geopolitical tensions over Iran. Whatever the reason, being long of precious metals, especially Gold and Silver, has been the most profitable trade available in recent months, and trend traders will be happily long. Silver is showing bullish price action over recent hours but did not make a new high price yesterday. We are seeing Platinum and Palladium start to cool off and consolidate however, so the rally is focused purely on Gold and Silver now, with Gold starting to take more of a leading role.
- Despite geopolitical tensions over war and trade, stock markets are mostly trading higher, with the S&P 500 Index making a record high daily close yesterday, and currently off-hours it is trading at a new all-time high above 7,000. A daily close above this psychological level today could signify that the Index is ready to go on to make substantial gains after trading mostly sideways so far in 2026. Other notably strong market indices include the South Korean KOSPI, which is closing at an all-time high, and the Chinese HSI, which is trading at a multi-year high. Trend traders will want to be long of the S&P 500 Index after yesterday's close. The NASDAQ 100 Index is also close to retesting its record high made some months ago.
- The US military buildup towards Iran continues, with prediction markets seeing a US military attack on Iran as likely to happen in March. President Trump yesterday remarked that "the armada is floating beautifully towards Iran". This isn't worrying stock markets much, but it is helping to send the price of Crude Oil higher, as a full-scale war could seriously impact the supply of crude oil to the global market. Currently, WTI Crude Oil is looking bullish and approaching a new 4-month high price.
- In the Forex market, since today's Tokyo open, the Australian Dollar has been the strongest major currency, while the Swiss Franc has been the weakest. Yesterday saw a strong bullish breakout in the EUR/USD which saw the spot price reach $1.2082, which was a new 4.5-year high price, before starting to make a bearish retracement. This is very significant, and trend traders will want to be long here. Many currencies gained against the US Dollar yesterday as President Trump made it clear that the Dollar's exchange rate was of no concern to him at all - "I can have it up or down like a yo-yo."
- After President Trump said he will announce his choice for the new Chair of the Federal Reserve soon, and after that, "rates will come down". The prediction site Polymarket currently has Rik Rieder as the candidate with the best odds of being appointed, but only with a plurality of 49% probability. This is likely wishful thinking from Trump, as the market has been predicting and continues to predict only two rate cuts of 0.25% over 2026 will be made regardless.
- Australian CPI (inflation) data rose unexpectedly strongly, showing an annualized rate increasing from 3.4% to 3.8% earlier today, while an increase to only 3.5% was expected. This makes rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of Australia more likely, and this has boosted the relative value of the Australian Dollar a bit over recent hours.
- Today we will see policy meetings at the US Federal Reserve and at the Bank of Canada. Both are strongly expected to leave interest rates unchanged.