Global stocks were mixed during a volatile trading session on Monday, as the precious metals market tried to recover from last week's sell-off. Traders assessed factors including geopolitical risks while US President Donald Trump indicated Iran was in “serious” discussions with Washington.
Silver had recovered from its losses earlier in the day to trade and was up 1.93 per cent at 1am UAE time Tuesday to 80.04 an ounce after falling as much as 11 per cent. Gold was last down 1.10 per cent at $4,692.70 an ounce. The fall in precious metals led to a wider sell-off during trading hours across Asia.
But Wall Street looked past concerns in the precious metals to end the first day of US trading in February in positive territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Averaged closed 1.05 per cent – or 515 points – higher. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.54 per cent and 0.56 per cent on the day, respectively.
Investors were expected to focus on technology earnings this week from the likes of Alphabet, Amazon and AMD after a series of Big Tech companies started earnings season reports last week.
“US President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair on Friday, triggering dramatic volatility across markets,” Mayed Alrashdi, research analyst at Emirates NBD, said in a note on Monday.
“Precious metals experienced their worst day in decades,” he added.
Oil price hit
Crude oil prices were down more than 4 per cent in late trading after Mr Trump indicated at the weekend that Iran was in “serious” discussions with Washington, and as Opec+ members reaffirmed a pause in oil output growth for March.
Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, was trading 4.26 per cent lower at $66.37 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, retreated 4.54 per cent to $62.25 a barrel.
Mr Trump said on Sunday that he hopes Iran will find “something that’s acceptable” to the US.
Asked if a final decision on Iran had been made, Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I can't tell you that, but we do have very big, powerful ships heading in that direction. I hope they [the Iranians] negotiate something that’s acceptable.
“Some people think that some people don’t make a negotiated deal that would be satisfactory with no nuclear weapons, and said they should do that, but I don’t know that they will. But they are talking to us, seriously talking to us,” he added.
As a result, “crude futures came in for a sharp sell-off when markets opened Monday morning on a perceived easing of US-Iran tensions, which had pushed prices to four-month highs last week”, said Vandana Hari, chief executive of Singapore-based Vanda Insights.
Mr Alrashdi said concerns about US-Iran tension and possible disruptions to Middle East crude flows “continue to underpin prices despite expectations of oversupply”.
Also, Opec+ on Sunday said it has agreed to keep its oil output unchanged for March. The supergroup of oil producers said that the next meeting will be held on March 1.
“The countries will continue to closely monitor and assess market conditions, and in their continuous efforts to support market stability, they reaffirmed the importance of adopting a cautious approach and retaining full flexibility to continue pausing or reverse the additional voluntary production adjustments,” Opec+ said. In November, the group froze further planned increases for January through March this year due to seasonally weaker consumption.
“Options include reversing the previous production increases, maintaining current production levels, and/or further unwinding production cuts,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a strategist at the Swiss bank UBS.
“The [Opec+] meeting lasted just six minutes – a record – suggesting there was no pushback and broad support for the decision.”
Temporary supply disruptions in the US and Kazakhstan, as well as a weaker US dollar and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, have supported crude prices in 2026, Mr Staunovo added.
“An easing of those disruptions is our base case, and as a result of it, we look for a modest drop in oil prices over the coming weeks.”
The US dollar, meanwhile, held on to gains as investors considered how the Fed under Mr Warsh might behave.
The dollar index remained above 97 on Monday after rising about 1 per cent in the previous session.
