Precious and industrial metals led the board lower as the London day wound down. Palladium fell 2.58% to $942.98, platinum dropped 1.74% to $1,417.52 and silver slid 1.64% to $49.79 β€” the three steepest single-session declines on the board.

Metals

Gold held up better but still eased 0.50% to $3,928.29. The weakness runs deeper than one session: silver is down 7.64% on the week and 18.26% on the month, platinum off 7.77% and 17.44% over the same spans, and palladium down 8.11% and 19.94%. Gold’s 4.98% monthly loss leaves it 0.16% lower on the year, while silver still carries a 5.77% annual gain.

Equities

London’s FTSE 100 was the weakest major index, down 1.54% to 10,604.64, with Spain’s IBEX 35 off 0.78% at 18,787.66. The Dow Jones 30 slipped 0.59% to 51,714.33 and the Euro Stoxx 50 eased 0.17% to 6,130.78.

US tech ran the other way. The Nasdaq 100 added 0.74% to 28,279.97 and the S&P 500 rose 0.33% to 7,578.70, though the Nasdaq still sits 4.20% lower on the week and 9.07% lower on the month. The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.70% at 63,103.80.

Crypto

Crypto supplied the day’s green. XRP rose 3.03% to $1.2849 and Solana added 2.08% to $93.67, with Ethereum up 1.92% at $2,292.23 and Bitcoin up 1.48% at $77,803.19. The bounce sits against a soft month, however: Solana is down 22.39% over 30 days, XRP off 14.70% and Ethereum down 15.39%.

Currencies

The dollar firmed in spots. USD/MXN rose 1.41% to 18.8290 and USD/JPY added 0.51% to 158.72, while EUR/USD was little changed at 1.11891. Sterling held at 1.34125 against the dollar, up 1.48% on the month.

Metals remain the session’s clear weak spot, with palladium, platinum and silver all down more than 1.5% on the day and all off at least 17% over the past month.