The US credit-rating downgrade last Friday has triggered broad dollar weakness—USD, bonds and equities are all under pressure—fueling a fresh leg higher in gold (now making new hourly highs) and a rally in EUR/USD toward the 1.18-1.20 area. China’s recent easing of bullion-inflow rules has driven its largest monthly gold imports in nearly a year, underpinning the yellow metal, while Bitcoin is trading like “digital gold” amid these dollar-weakness flows.
Risk sentiment has been buoyed by a dovish US CPI print (Core MoM 0.1% vs 0.3% forecast) and soft PPI, underscoring fading tariff-inflation fears and setting the stage for renewed Fed rate-cut speculation—boosting equities, crypto and high-beta FX (AUD, NZD, CAD) while keeping the USD under pressure.
US-China trade talks wrapped up with a framework to uphold the Geneva deal—enough to avert escalation but nothing to spark a big rally. That leaves markets in a mild risk-on mode: equities (S&P 500, Nasdaq) grinding higher toward all-time highs, safe havens (gold, CHF, JPY) under pressure,
US-China trade talks resume in London today, and the market is pricing in another modestly positive outcome—enough to keep risk appetite up but unlikely to deliver fresh tariff cuts. Equities and high-beta currencies (AUD, NZD) remain under tailwinds, while traditional safe-havens (gold, CHF, JPY) have come under pressure. Gold’
Global Financial Condition Highlights * US labor market is softening: ADP rose just +37k in May, ISM services declined, initial jobless claims jumped to 247k, and the June NFP printed 139k (vs. 126k expected) with downward revisions to March-April. * Second round of US-China trade talks kicks off in London; markets expect