With the U.S. stock markets taking a breather today, investors are obviously on the hunt for something—anything—to fuel their trading strategies! While the day may have been quiet on Wall Street, there’s plenty of noise elsewhere, especially with the latest Challenger jobs report and comments from Federal Reserve officials making waves. And what do we see? A rather mixed bag in risk assets: gold and crude oil are dancing upward, while bitcoin… well, it’s taking a bit of a dive well below that flashy $100K mark. It raises the question, should we be bullish on commodities or is it time to keep a cautious eye on crypto? Let’s dig into the headlines and find out! LEARN MORE.
With U.S. stock markets closed for the day, market participants turned their attention to changes in market sentiment, as well as the Challenger jobs report and Fed commentary.
Risk assets had a mixed run, with commodities like gold and crude oil raking in strong gains while bitcoin continued its slide below the $100K mark.
Let’s dive into the latest market updates!
Headlines:
- Japan cash earnings rose 3.0% y/y – the fastest in 32 years – in November (2.7% expected, 2.2% previous)
- Australia retail sales for November: 0.8% m/m (1.0% expected, 0.5% previous)
- Australia goods trade surplus for November: 7.08B AUD (5.62B AUD expected, 5.67B AUD previous)
- Chinese Inflation Rate YoY in December: 0.1% m/m (0.20% forecast; 0.20% previous)
- Chinese PPI YoY in December: -2.3% (-2.40% forecast; -2.50% previous)
- German industrial production in November: +1.5% m/m (0.5% forecast, -0.4% previous)
- German trade balance in November: 19.7B EUR (14.7B EUR forecast, 13.4B EUR previous)
- Swiss foreign currency reserves up from 725B CHF to 731B CHF in December
- Euro area retail sales in November: +0.1% m/m (0.3% expected, -0.3% previous)
- U.S. Challenger job cuts in December: 11.4% y/y (26.8% previous)
- FOMC officials emphasized gradual data-dependent approach to easing:
- Fed official Collins noted that the December cut provided insurance for the labor market
- Fed official Harker says they remain on a rate-cutting path but might be appropriate to pause given uncertainties
- Fed official Schmid mentioned that their interest rate policy may be “near” its long-term target and that they are “pretty close” to achieving both its mandates
- Fed official Bowman said that the December cut was the “final step” in recalibrating policy and that she even considered voting to hold
- U.S. stock markets closed on a national day of mourning for former President Carter
Broad Market Price Action:

Dollar Index, Gold, S&P 500, Oil, U.S. 10-yr Yield, Bitcoin Overlay Chart by TradingView
Market activity was relatively subdued early on, as major asset classes traded sideways. Crude oil, which initially spent most of the Asian and London sessions in the red, turned higher as the day went on and eventually closed 1.07% in the green.
Gold also picked up steam on its climb, as it likely took advantage of safe-haven flows stemming from trade-related uncertainties, ending 0.27% higher for the day despite a stronger U.S. dollar. Bitcoin, however, extended its current decline and dropped more than $3,000 to trade just slightly above the $91,000 level.