The precious metals complex ran the session. Palladium led all instruments at +3.61% to 1,351.32, with silver up 1.91% to 65.34, gold 1.47% higher at 4,388.35 and platinum matching at +1.46% to 1,764.95.
Metals
The day’s strength sits against a softer week: silver is still down 5.49% over five sessions and platinum off 4.57%, while gold has shed 4.49%. The longer horizon tells a different story β silver holds a 59.1% year gain and gold 23.26%. On the month, all four metals remain green, gold up 7.76% and silver 9.95%.
Currencies
The yen firmed against everything. NZD/JPY was the sharpest FX loser at -1.79% to 92.70, with GBP/JPY down 1.14% to 214.00 and CHF/JPY off 1.04% to 195.22. EUR/JPY slid 0.98% to 183.85 and USD/JPY fell 0.93% to 158.70, though the dollar-yen pair still carries a 7.25% year gain.
The dollar was mixed elsewhere. USD/ZAR dropped 1.19% to 15.971 and USD/CAD eased 0.40% to 1.38399, while EUR/USD was flat at 1.15864 and GBP/USD slipped 0.23% to 1.34805. The Australian dollar bucked the antipodean weakness, with AUD/NZD up 1.00% to 1.2245; NZD/USD fell 0.89% to 0.58396, extending a 1.91% weekly loss.
Indices
US benchmarks closed higher. The Dow added 0.55% to 53,071.45 and the S&P 500 rose 0.29% to 7,658.91, while the Nasdaq 100 barely moved at +0.04% to 29,096.44. All three are lower on the week, the Nasdaq off 1.52%.
Europe was quiet β the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.38% to 6,365.98 and the DAX was unchanged at 25,825.57. The Nikkei 225 was the notable laggard, down 0.51% to 64,474.06, though it still holds a 53.31% year advance.
Crypto and energy
Major coins leaned lower. Ethereum fell 1.08% to 2,390.46 and Bitcoin eased 0.19% to 77,236.29, both still up sharply on the month at 27.99% and 20.60% respectively. Cardano was a rare gainer at +0.76%.
Crude held its recent surge. USOil dipped 0.20% to 89.31 and UKOil eased 0.10% to 94.02, but both retain weekly gains above 6.7% and monthly advances near 20%.
The yen crosses remain the session’s clearest theme heading into the next session.
