In November, the UK’s Department for Communities and Local Government reported a Year-on-Year House Price Index rise of 2.5%, surpassing the forecast of 1.8%. This indicates a higher-than-expected growth in the housing market for that period.<\/p>\n
The Reuters poll suggests that the Federal Reserve is likely to maintain interest rates steady in their January meeting. Meanwhile, the EUR\/USD is closely watched as it trades beyond the 1.1700 level.<\/p>\n
Gold prices nearly reached $4,900 per troy ounce. This increase is attributed to risk aversion in the markets ahead of significant events, like US President Trump’s upcoming speech at the World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n
BNB, formerly known as Binance Coin, saw a 1% drop amid a broader decline in the cryptocurrency market. Trading interest in this exchange token diminishes, indicated by a reduction in long positions and futures Open Interest.<\/p>\n
US President Trump is expected to deliver a speech at the World Economic Forum after 13:00 GMT. His address could potentially influence the EUR\/USD currency pair, with heightened interest due to recent tensions surrounding tariff proposals on European goods.<\/p>\n
Given the looming threat of US tariffs on key European nations over the Greenland issue, we must prepare for sustained market volatility. The risk-off sentiment that has pushed gold to all-time highs will likely dominate decision-making in the coming weeks. We believe the key is to hedge against downside risk in European assets while looking for opportunities in safe havens.<\/p>\n
We should increase exposure to gold, which is clearly benefiting from the flight to safety. With prices nearing $4,900, buying call options on gold futures or related ETFs offers a way to capture further upside toward the $5,000 psychological level while defining our risk. Looking back at the trade wars of the late 2010s, gold performed exceptionally well during periods of high geopolitical tension, a pattern that is repeating now.<\/p>\n
The tariff threats are a direct headwind for the Euro, so we should consider bearish positions on the EUR\/USD pair. Buying put options can protect against a sharp drop following President Trump’s speech at Davos, especially with the pair already retreating from recent highs. We saw a similar dynamic in 2018 when US-EU trade spats pushed EUR\/USD down more than 8% over several months.<\/p>\n
For the British Pound, the situation is more complex, as strong domestic data clashes with external tariff risks. The UK’s annual inflation rate unexpectedly rose to 2.9% last month in December 2025, and November’s house price growth was stronger than forecast, suggesting the Bank of England may be hesitant to ease policy. This conflict creates an opportunity for volatility trades, such as straddles on GBP\/USD, to profit from a large price swing in either direction.<\/p>\n
European equities are the most vulnerable, particularly in tariff-targeted countries like Germany and France. We should use derivatives to hedge or establish short positions on major European indices like the Euro Stoxx 50. The VSTOXX, which measures Euro Stoxx 50 volatility, has already surged over 35% this month, indicating that the cost of protection is rising, so acting decisively is crucial.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UK house prices rose 2.5%, gold nears $4,900, Trump\u2019s WEF speech may impact EUR\/USD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":16973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}