Politics dominated currency markets on Monday as the Japanese yen weakened by the most against the dollar in five months as Sanae Takaichi looked set to become Japan's next prime minister, while the euro slid on news that France's new prime minister had quit. Takaichi is a former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world's fourth-largest economy, and won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election at the weekend. Her victory traders caused to reduce bets that the Bank of Japan will increase interest rates this month and...
Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday after OPEC+ only raised November production by 137,000 bpd, a smaller increase than would have affected the market. At 08:08 GMT, Brent rose 1.2% to $65.33 per barrel, while WTI rose 1.3% to $61.64. These limited increases are short-term supply increases. Analysts believe the market was previously anticipating a larger increase. Janiv Shah (Rystad) said that an increase of 137,000 bpd still risks "bloating" the surplus in the fourth quarter of 2025 and into 2026. Behind the scenes, Russia is pushing for a 137,000 bpd increase, while Saudi Arabia was...
Gold prices hit an all-time high on Monday (October 6), surging above $3,900 an ounce, as investors flocked to safe-haven assets amid the US government shutdown, broader economic uncertainty, and the prospect of further Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Spot gold rose 1.4% to $3,940.04 an ounce, as of 11:08 GMT, after reaching $3,949.34 earlier in the session. US gold futures for December delivery rose 1.4% to $3,964.50. Washington will begin mass layoffs of federal workers if US President Donald Trump decides negotiations with Democratic lawmakers to end the partial government shutdown...