The Russian Producer Price Index (MoM) fell to -1.6% in December, down from -0.9% previously. This suggests a decline in the prices of goods produced, which could impact market dynamics in related sectors.<\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve decided to keep the Fed Funds Target Range steady at 3.50%\u20133.75%. This move aligns with market expectations and is seen as an indicator of confidence in the current state of the economy.<\/p>\n
The EUR\/USD pair remains pressured near the 1.1950 zone. This comes after the US dollar’s recovery following recent Federal Open Market Committee events, with upcoming US labour data drawing attention.<\/p>\n
In commodities, gold reached a new high of $5,311 but has since retreated slightly. It maintains a strong position, stabilising below $5,300, after recent Federal Reserve policy changes.<\/p>\n
Ethereum faces challenges in maintaining the $3,000 level, amid fluctuating onchain metrics. Contrarily, Bittensor\u2019s TAO token has rallied above $240, indicating positive sentiment in the crypto market.<\/p>\n
Tesla shares increased by 3% on earnings that surpassed expectations. Conversely, Microsoft stock dipped despite a favourable quarterly report, and Meta Platforms saw a rise of over 4%.<\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates at 3.50%-3.75% is the key driver, pushing gold to record highs over $5,300. We saw a similar setup in late 2023 when the market first priced in a Fed pivot, and gold broke through $2,100. Given that inflation remained sticky above 4% at the end of last year, positioning for further upside in gold through futures or call options seems prudent.<\/p>\n
With the Fed now on the sidelines, the US Dollar is losing its key support, even with the recent small rebound. We see this as an opportunity to look at currency pairs like EUR\/USD and GBP\/USD, as central banks in Europe signaled a more hawkish stance in late 2025. Traders could use options to bet against the dollar, as this policy divergence is likely to pressure the Greenback in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The stock market is no longer moving as one, with individual company earnings from Tesla and Meta driving performance. This suggests a shift away from broad index trading toward more specific strategies. With the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) currently elevated near 21, reflecting ongoing “yield jitters,” buying straddles on major tech stocks ahead of their earnings could capitalize on expected price swings.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Producer prices fall, Fed holds rates, gold stabilizes, cryptos diverge, and tech stocks show mixed performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":17027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40406","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\/40406","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=40406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}