Two markets did the heavy lifting on the downside: crude and crypto. Brent (UKOil) dropped 5.12% to 85.55 and WTI (USOil) shed 4.85% to 80.65, both giving back the bulk of a rough week (-4.81% and -4.19%). Cardano led a broad crypto retreat, falling 5.66% to 0.2084.
Crypto
The selling was wide but shallow relative to recent gains. Cardano’s 5.66% slide still leaves it up 34.45% on the month. Stellar dropped 5.08% and Polkadot 4.90% among the covered losers.
Majors held up better. Bitcoin eased 0.68% to 78,436.9, Ethereum lost 1.94% to 2,433.36, and Solana slipped 2.25% to 96.68. XRP fell 3.22% to 1.4333 but remains 29.73% higher over the week. The outlier was MATIC, up 4.51% and a striking 55.23% on the week.
Equities
Stock indices leaned green while everything else wobbled. The Nikkei 225 led with a 1.39% gain to 66,050.28, now up 55.47% on the year. The Nasdaq 100 added 0.67% to 29,212.11 despite a soft -1.10% week.
In Europe, the DAX 40 rose 0.59% to 26,271.33 and the FTSE 100 gained 0.41% to 10,896.61, the latter up 1.34% on the week. The Euro Stoxx 50 edged 0.19% higher. The CAC 40 was the laggard, off 0.21%, with the IBEX 35 down 0.16%. The S&P 500 firmed 0.28% and the Dow 0.26%.
Metals and FX
Precious metals cooled after their run. Gold slipped 0.45% to 4,659.16 but is still up 3.27% on the week and 37.4% on the year. Silver fell 1.40% to 68.72, holding a 77.81% annual gain. Platinum dropped 1.90% and palladium 2.24%.
Currencies were quiet by comparison. The dollar softened against the commodity and Scandi bloc: USDZAR fell 0.86% to 15.864, USDSEK dropped 0.53%, and NOKSEK slid 0.77%. EURUSD was flat at 1.16721, GBPUSD firmed 0.08% to 1.36473, and USDJPY held at 159.20. The Australian and New Zealand dollars nudged higher, AUDUSD at 0.71624 and NZDUSD at 0.59713.
The energy complex remains the session’s clear weak spot, with both Brent and WTI down more than 4% on both the day and the week.
