When geopolitical stress spikes, gold and silver are where nervous capital runs. And right now, there's plenty to be nervous about. Geopolitical tensions, including the ongoing Iran war reshaping energy markets, U.S. actions related to Venezuela, and global trade and tariff uncertainty, are pushing investors into gold and silver as stores of value.
Futures are trading lower as many across Wall Street breathed a semi-sigh of relief yesterday after oil futures, which shot up to $120 overnight, retreated below $100 on Monday. That was the biggest spike in oil pricing since 2020. With the retreat in the black gold, the major indices did a massive midday turnaround.
The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 50,000 for the first time, as ballooning tech valuations, robust corporate earnings and hopes of lower interest rates drive it to new highs. Chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's performance over the past year Leading stock markets on Wall Street came under pressure earlier this week as technology stocks fell amid scrutiny of extraordinary levels of investment into artificial intelligence.
Since taking office, Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on countries, including key trading partners, leading to predictions of inflation skyrocketing, manufacturing screeching to a halt and unemployment soaring. None of those scenarios came true. Inflation, while above the Federal Reserve's target, was a modest 2.7 percent in December. The unemployment rate was relatively low, at 4.4 percent, last month.
The economy is a tale of two halves at present, with wealthy consumers reporting confidence in their outlook, while those at the lower end of the income ladder reportedly feel they're living in a recession-albeit without widespread job losses. This is what economists are calling a 'K-shaped economy,' where the fortunes of two distinct sets of consumers are increasingly diverging over time.
U.S. stocks signaled another rally on Sunday night after the Trump administration negotiated a framework for a trade deal with China that should avoid mutual assured destruction. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered rough outlines of an agreement that include China easing rare earth export restrictions and buying "significant" amounts of U.S. soybeans in exchange for President Donald Trump removing his threat of adding 100% tariffs on China.
Cambricon Technologies Corp. swung to a record profit in the first half, reflecting a wave of demand for Chinese chips after Beijing encouraged the use of homegrown technology in a post-DeepSeek AI boom. The Chinese AI chip designer, which competes with Huawei Technologies Co. to provide accelerators for developing and hosting AI models, posted a 1.03 billion yuan profit ($144 million) versus a year-earlier loss of 533 million yuan. That's off a roughly 44-fold surge in revenue to 2.9 billion yuan. Its shares climbed more than 8% in Shanghai.
