🌍 Worldwide Markets – Episode 664 📅 Recorded: Tuesday midday | 🎙️ Host: Simon Brown This week on Worldwide Markets, we unpack a wild ride across commodities, central banks, tech titans, and global trade — with gold stealing the spotlight once again. 🟡 Has Gold Bottomed? Gold went vertical — and then snapped back hard. 📈 Ran from around $4,300 → $5,600, before a brutal sell-off 📉 Dropped to $4,600, now stabilising near $4,900 🕯️ That giant red "kangaroo tail" candle looks ugly — but… The bigger picture hasn't changed: 💵 Debasement trade still intact 🌍 Central banks bought ~800 tonnes last year 🏦 ETF investors were big buyers again after selling in 2024 ➡️ Verdict: Likely consolidation, not collapse. Sideways is the base case. Gold |Weekly | 03 February 2026 🧱 Commodities Ran Too Hot It wasn't just gold: 🔩 Copper, silver, platinum, palladium all surged 🛢️ Brent crude nearly hit $70 🪨 Aluminium hit US record prices, creating transatlantic arbitrage Nothing goes straight up forever — profit-taking was inevitable. 🪙 What About Silver? Simon stays honest here: ❓ Industrial demand and price dislocations matter ⚠️ But silver remains complex and opaque 💡 Portfolio stance: ✅ Holding gold miners ✅ Holding gold ETFs (local & offshore) ❌ No silver exposure — and comfortable with that 🏦 Fed Drama: Enter Steve Walsh Trump's Fed chair nominee spooked markets — but context matters: 🔄 Walsh is not a hawk, more a rate flip-flopper 🗳️ Previously opposed rate cuts… until Trump won 📉 Trump wants lower rates — Walsh says he'll deliver The challenge? 🧠 Convincing the rest of the FOMC 🪑 Jerome Powell still has influence for now ➡️ Expect noise, not an instant policy pivot. 🚀 SpaceX + xAI = Trillion-Dollar IPO? Big Elon energy this week: 🛰️ SpaceX acquires xAI 🧠 Grok + data + power + space = big ambitions 📊 IPO rumoured for mid-2026 💰 Valuation likely north of $1 trillion Simon likes SpaceX… less excited by the social-media side. 🚗 SA Vehicle Sales: Still Strong January numbers surprised again: 📊 Sales near levels last seen in 2019 / early 2022 🏆 Toyota leads, but Chinese brands keep climbing 🇨🇳 Chery, GWM, JAC & friends reshaping the market Consumers are still buying — despite high rates. 🤝 US–India Trade "Peace"… Sort Of A deal was announced, but details are fuzzy: 📉 Tariffs reduced (somewhat) 🛢️ India supposedly to stop buying Russian oil (👀) 💸 India to buy $500bn of US goods (timeline unclear) History lesson: 🌮 Trump tariff threats turn real only ~20% of the time ⚖️ Supreme Court still deciding if Trump even has the authority ➡️ Lots of headlines, fewer guarantees. 🎓 Upcoming Event: Power Hour 📅 19 February 📍 Rosebank (in-person) + webcast 💡 Topic: Tax-Free Investing & ETFs 👉 Book at justonelap.com/events 👋 Closing Thoughts Markets are noisy, emotional, and fast — but the big-picture trends still matter more than the candles. Until next week: 🤍 Look after yourself 🤍 And if you can, look after someone else too Cheers! 🍻 Simon Brown * I hold ungeared positions. All charts by KoyFin | Get 10% off your order