The session opens with a sharp risk-off tone in Asia and a heavy bid gone from precious metals. The Nikkei 225 sank 4.17% to 66,048, the day’s single biggest mover, though it still holds a 52.79% gain on the year.

Silver was right behind it, off 4.00% to 63.31, with platinum down 3.74% to 1,714.63 and palladium down 3.43% to 1,285.02. Gold shed 2.08% to 4,333.57.

Metals

The metals complex led the losers board. Despite the drop, silver is still up 12.38% on the month and 69.50% on the year, while gold holds a 30.76% year gain. The single-session pullback trims a run rather than reversing it.

Platinum’s 3.74% slide pairs with a 2.44% weekly loss, and palladium’s 6.22% week is the softest stretch in the group.

Indices

Equity weakness extended beyond Tokyo. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.79% to 29,467, the S&P 500 dropped 0.72% to 7,691, and the Dow eased 0.24% to 53,341. In Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 lost 0.76%, the DAX 40 fell 0.62% to 26,142, and the CAC 40 slipped 0.71%.

Hong Kong bucked the trend, the Hang Seng edging up 0.08% to 25,394. Longer-term context stays firm: the S&P 500 is up 20.05% on the year and the Nasdaq 100 26.25%.

Currencies

FX moves were contained against the equity slide. USD/JPY firmed 0.17% to 159.60, while AUD/USD eased 0.34% to 0.7083 and NZD/USD dropped 0.55% to 0.5872, the softest of the majors. EUR/USD held near flat at 1.15748, and GBP/USD slipped 0.13% to 1.35309.

USD/ZAR fell 0.50% to 16.137 and USD/NOK dropped 0.17% to 9.399, both extending monthly dollar losses against those currencies.

Crypto

Crypto was mixed and quiet by comparison. Bitcoin held at 64,577, up 0.16% and 1.84% on the week. Ethereum was flat at 1,911, while Solana added 1.25% to 76.84.

The softer names dragged: Stellar fell 2.61% to 0.15364 and is down 18.34% on the month, and Cardano eased 0.63% to 0.1726, deep in a 79.61% yearly decline. XRP slipped 0.21% to hold just under parity at 0.9996.

What to watch

Oil stood apart from the sell-off, with UKOil up 0.42% to 89.87 and USOil up 0.35% to 84.35, both up more than 3% on the week. The precious-metals complex remains the session’s clearest weak spot.