While this note focuses primarily on Amazon—following the company’s earnings release after yesterday’s market close and the subsequent 10% decline in after-hours trading—it is impossible to ignore the broader market dynamics that unfolded during the previous session, which was marked by a pronounced risk-off move across asset classes. Commodities led the sell-off. Precious metals recorded […]
Today marks a key policy day, with interest rate decisions due from both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England. The latter is of particular interest. The UK economy has been slowing steadily over recent quarters. Annual GDP growth has decelerated from 1.9% in Q4 2024 to 1.3% in the same period of […]
At one point yesterday, the Nasdaq (US100) was down as much as 2.3%, pushing the tech-heavy index into negative territory for the year. The intraday low was 25,112, compared with the 31 December 2025 close of 25,249, implying a year-to-date decline of 0.54%. The index later rebounded to 25,338 before closing the session down 1.55%. […]
While volatility across multiple asset classes has increased steadily over recent weeks—something we have all observed—the VIX index, which reflects equity market volatility and more specifically options on the S&P 500 maturing within 30 days, has remained relatively subdued. To be fair, the VIX has attempted to rebound a couple of times over the past […]
Over the past several weeks, we have repeatedly discussed the powerful rally in precious metals. It was hard to ignore: silver had risen by +69.66% in just one month, up to Thursday, January 29. The move appeared unstoppable and—frankly—illogical, difficult to justify on fundamental grounds, and above all imprudent. Plausible explanations did exist: silver’s growing […]
Global equity markets are lower this morning following yesterday’s turbulence in gold and other precious metals. XAUUSD, after reaching $5,600, experienced heavy profit-taking that pushed prices down toward $5,030 before closing at -1.35% (currently down a further 4.38% today). In addition, markets are expecting President Trump to announce the next Fed Chair later today (U.S. […]
Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Tesla reported earnings after the market close on January 28, 2026, covering Q4 2025 results for Meta and Tesla, and Q2 FY2026 results for Microsoft. Overall, the reports delivered a mixed set of beats, underscoring continued optimism around AI while exposing growing divergence in how effectively each company is deploying capital. […]
After months of relatively subdued volatility in FX markets, conditions have shifted abruptly. Over the past four sessions, the USD Index has recorded its worst performance since April 2025 (the days following the initial tariff announcements). With a -0.83% decline yesterday, the greenback has depreciated to levels last seen four years ago, in February 2022. […]
Yesterday we discussed the movements in the JPY, and as anticipated, today we will briefly cover their relevance for global risk markets and the global benchmark, the SP500 The Japanese banking and insurance sectors are among the largest and most important in the world. As of 2024, Japanese banks held approximately USD 17 trillion in […]
In recent years, it has happened on several occasions that Japanese monetary and government authorities (often in coordination with their counterparts) begin to express concern when USD/JPY moves above the 150 level and step into the FX market to stabilize the domestic currency as it approaches the 160 area. The first intervention took place in […]
