Crude was the session’s sharpest move. Brent (UKOil) fell 3.23% to $97.41 and US crude (USOil) shed 1.62% to $91.52 β€” the two largest single-day declines on the board. Both still carry big longer-run gains, with Brent up 41.5% and WTI 40.56% on the year, but each slipped over the past week, down 2.19% and 3.83% respectively.

Metals firm as crude sells off

Precious metals ran the other way. Platinum (XPTUSD) added 1.38% to $1,782.66 and silver (XAGUSD) rose 1.14% to $64.31, with gold (XAUUSD) up 0.5% to $4,286.24 and palladium (XPDUSD) 0.54% higher at $1,268.21. The bounce sits against a soft week for the group: gold is off 1.98% and platinum 1.44% over five sessions, and gold has given back 3.78% on the month. Silver still holds a 39.7% year-on-year gain.

Equities grind higher, Nikkei out front

Stock indices were broadly green. The Nikkei 225 (JP225) led the majors with a 1.64% gain to 66,613.39, extending a 2.13% week and a standout 46.56% year. On Wall Street the Dow (US30) rose 1.07% to 51,824.34, the S&P 500 (US500) added 0.69% to 7,743.31, and the Nasdaq 100 (UT100) gained 0.74% to 30,633.09 β€” the tech gauge is up 3.02% on the week and 4% on the month. In Europe, the DAX (DE40) rose 0.79%, the Euro Stoxx 50 (EU50) 0.56% and the IBEX 35 (ES35) 0.51%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HK50) was the lone major decliner, off 0.46%.

Yen firms across the board

The Japanese yen was the standout in currencies. USD/JPY fell 0.97% to 157.29, and the yen gained against every major cross: CHF/JPY dropped 1.05% to 189.73, CAD/JPY 0.95% to 111.19, EUR/JPY 0.83% to 179.15 and GBP/JPY 0.73% to 208.28. The dollar was softer elsewhere too β€” USD/ZAR fell 0.88%, USD/PLN 0.4% and USD/MXN 0.39% β€” while EUR/USD edged up 0.13% to 1.13875 and GBP/USD 0.25% to 1.32405.

Crypto mixed, majors weak

Digital assets leaned lower. XRP (XRPUSD) fell 2.76% to $1.524, Dogecoin (DOGUSD) 2.33% to $0.0965 and Cardano (ADAUSD) 2.29% to $0.2522, all still carrying double-digit monthly gains. Polkadot (DOTUSD) bucked the trend, up 1.9% to $1.233 and 45.74% on the month. Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was little changed at $84,190.08, up 0.13%, while Ethereum (ETHUSD) slipped 0.18% to $2,686.13.

Crude remains the session’s clear outlier, with both oil contracts leading the downside as equities and the yen firmed.