Crypto News Explorer

#USGDPUpdate
#USStocks have been eclipsed by market gains in the rest of the world in 2025, as worries about high valuations, a Chinese artificial intelligence breakthrough and #DonaldTrum ’s radical economic policies contributed to a rare year of underperformance for Wall Street.

The S&P 500 was up 17.4 per cent this year when US markets closed on Monday, undershooting the 29 per cent gain for the MSCI All Country World ex-US index by the widest margin since the global financial crisis in 2009.

Wall Street’s AI boom has powered a rebound from the sell-off sparked by Trump’s “liberation day” #Tariffs blitz in April.

But the lingering effects of the president’s trade war — as well as anxieties over sky-high US tech valuations — have led many investors to question the dominant position in global portfolios long enjoyed by US stocks.

#AsianStocks markets have been among the strongest performers, buoyed in part by Chinese start-up DeepSeek, which raised the prospect of serious competition to US AI with its large language model breakthrough in January.

The MSCI China is up 29 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has climbed almost 28 per cent.

US chipmaker Nvidia dropped 17 per cent on a single day following the release of a DeepSeek model whose performance rivalled those of US competitors but at a lower cost, prompting investors to question whether vast investment in AI infrastructure was necessary.

Although Nvidia stormed back to become the world’s first $5tn company in October, nagging doubts about AI valuations have hit the US market, fuelling a sharp November sell-off.

#GOLD hits record high and dollar weakens on Fed independence worries
Long-term inflation expectations tick up after US prosecutors launch criminal investigation into #chairPowell

Gold prices climbed as much as 2% to $4,600 a troy ounce for the first time on Monday Angel García/Bloomberg
Gold hits record high and #UDST weakens on Fed independence worries on #X (opens in a new window)
Gold hits record high and dollar weakens on Fed independence worries on facebook (opens in a new window)
Gold hits record high and dollar weakens on Fed independence worries on linkedin (opens in a new window)
Gold hits record high and dollar weakens on Fed independence worries on whatsapp (opens in a new window)

Save
Ian Smith and Rachel Rees in London and William Sandlund in Hong Kong

Gold jumped to a record high and the dollar fell on Monday after US prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into #FederalReserve chair Jay Powell, stoking concerns about the central bank’s independence.

The precious metal climbed as much as 2.7 per cent to more than $4,600 a troy ounce, while the dollar weakened 0.3 per cent against a basket of major currencies including the pound and the euro. Silver jumped as much as 7.8 per cent to a fresh record above $86 per troy ounce.

US stocks were marginally higher, recovering from earlier falls.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which moves inversely to the price, climbed to nearly 4.21 per cent before falling back to 4.18 per cent by lunchtime in New York.

“The risk is that the gloves are off for the coming quarters” between the White House and the Fed, said Kevin Thozet, a member of the investment committee at asset manager Carmignac.

Powell on Sunday said the Fed had received grand jury subpoenas and a threat of criminal indictment from the justice department relating to his testimony before Congress about a $2.5bn renovation of the central bank’s headquarters.

Investors said the dollar and gold moves reflected the risk that US policy rates could be held lower than they would otherwise be due to political pressure, with the potential for higher long-term inflation and monetary policy uncertainty as a result.

Market measures of long-term inflation expectations also ticked up, with 10-year break-even rates reaching 2.3 per cent for the first time since November.
We’ve been here before — political pressure on the Fed means a lower US dollar, higher long-end US Treasury yields and higher inflation expectations,” said Mike Riddell, a fund manager at Fidelity International.

But the scale of the market moves was relatively small, with many investors backing rate setters to remain independent.

“My expectation again is that the committee will continue to make decisions on the back of their mandate and the economic data,” Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, told a conference in London.
$BTC $SUI $USDC

A wave of bullion selling worth more than $10bn is providing the first “big test” of the market in 2026, as last year’s stratospheric run-up in #GOLD and #Silver prices comes under pressure.
Funds that track commodity indices are rebalancing their holdings and are expected to #sell about $6.1bn of silver and $5.6bn of gold during the annual rebalancing window running this year from January 8 to 15, according to calculations from #JPMorgan .
It is the industry’s first big test of how sustainable the December moves are, given we are starting 2026 at such a high base,” said Nicky Shiels, analyst at MKS Pamp.
Benchmark commodity indices such as the Bloomberg Commodity index have to rebalance their weightings once a year to maintain target allocation levels. Funds that track the indices have to buy or sell ,s as a result.
Traders are also watching cocoa, which has been re-included in the BCOM. Funds will have to buy a quantity of cocoa equivalent to about 30 per cent of open interest on the Ice exchange in London, according to Kona Haque, head of research at commodity trader ED&F Man.

“This is huge,” she said, adding that the changes helped explain cocoa’s sharp rally in November, when the index announced its inclusion.

Haque said some speculative funds may already have moved ahead of the rebalancing but added that “even then, there should be a decent bullish impact on cocoa prices just on the pure index funds buying”.

“Cocoa people have talked of little else for three months,” said Jonathan Parkman of Marex, adding that there were concerns the rebalancing could prompt short covering of a large speculative position in London.  

Cocoa prices fell nearly 50 per cent in 2025, after a record-breaking rally in 2023 and 2024 driven by supply shortages in West Africa, which grows more than two-thirds of the world’s beans.
$BTC $ETH $BNB