Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, financial markets, and the global economy. It appears to be Turnaround Tuesday, with precious metals and Asia-Pacific stock markets both recovering after experiencing significant declines on Monday.
Precious Metals Stage Impressive Recovery
Gold has surged by 4.5% this morning, reaching $4,877 per ounce, marking a substantial recovery from yesterday's price of $4,403 per ounce. Meanwhile, silver has demonstrated even stronger momentum, picking up 6.5% to reach $84.70 per ounce.
Despite today's gains, gold remains approximately 12% below last week's record highs. This follows Friday's dramatic sell-off, which represented gold's worst trading day since the early 1980s. Silver experienced its most severe intraday collapse ever during the same period.
Market Analysis and Expert Commentary
There is growing optimism that the worst of what market commentators have termed the "metals meltdown" may now be behind us. The recent turbulence appears to have driven some highly speculative, leveraged traders out of the market, potentially creating more stable conditions.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote, offers valuable insight into the current situation. She states: "With leveraged speculative positions flushed out, investors may feel they are returning to a freshly cleaned playground, albeit cautiously. The long-term outlook for gold remains bullish."
Ozkardeskaya further explains that the fundamental factors supporting gold prices since last year remain firmly in place. She highlights persistent trade and geopolitical uncertainty, alongside what she describes as increasingly unsustainable G7 debt dynamics that are likely to worsen. This includes the situation in the United States with the "Big, Beautiful Bill," as well as rising defence spending in Japan and Europe.
Today's Key Economic Events
The financial calendar features several important events today:
- 9:45am GMT: Treasury Committee hearing on the government's financial inclusion strategy
- 8:00am GMT: UK grocery inflation figures for January
- 3:00pm GMT: US JOLTS job openings report
- 3:00pm GMT: Chief Secretary to the Treasury to give evidence to the Economic Affairs Committee
These events will provide further context to the day's market movements and economic outlook.
