Global markets opened with a cautiously optimistic tone after conciliatory remarks at the World Economic Forum and a fresh round of data and policy signals from Beijing. In New York, the three major US indices climbed about 1.2% as investors appeared encouraged by former President Donald Trump's statements in Davos that he would not seize Greenland by force and that planned tariffs on European goods would be deferred. Technology and storage names led gains, while Chinese listings and US-traded China indexes also registered broad strength.
The rally sat alongside an extraordinary move in precious metals: spot gold set a new all-time high near $4,888 per ounce. The spike reflects a convergence of factors: a steep winter storm across North America that threatens US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, a deepening cold spell across Europe and Asia that heightens near-term fuel demand, and lingering macro uncertainty that keeps safe-haven bids alive despite stock-market optimism.
Energy markets were the day's real story. US natural gas futures jumped more than 29% on the session and have surged about 62% for the week, as pipeline and export vulnerabilities from an extreme weather event forced traders to re-price short-term supply risk. European benchmark gas prices climbed above €40/MWh for the first time since last summer, underlining how regional weather shocks can rapidly ripple through global energy and commodity markets.
Oil moved only modestly higher, with WTI February futures closing around $60.62 a barrel and Brent near $65.24, as geopolitics and demand concerns offset each other. Meanwhile, silver showed pronounced intra-day volatility, initially plunging then partially recovering, an echo of raw-material traders' shifting risk assessments. The coexistence of a stock-market advance and record gold suggests investors are straddling a line between risk-seeking and risk-averse positioning.
Behind the market noise, Beijing put several policy levers on display. China’s central bank convened a payments and settlements meeting that emphasised accelerated construction of a cross-border RMB payment system and greater interoperability — a clear signal of continued efforts to internationalise the currency and reduce frictions in cross-border trade and finance. Separately, the Ministry of Finance extended a temporary tax exemption on individual capital gains from transfers of China Depositary Receipts (CDRs) for the next two years, directly incentivising domestic participation in innovative firms' onshore listings.
Industry headlines added texture to the economic picture. Intel and AMD reported server-CPU capacity effectively sold out for 2026 as cloud customers locked in supply, prompting planned price rises; major memory and storage firms are lengthening long-term supply agreements; and Guangdong unveiled policies to expand autonomous-driving tests and applications. On corporate earnings, a string of Chinese companies issued profit warnings or guidance that reflected sectoral stresses — from solar and property to advanced-memory startups — underscoring uneven corporate conditions beneath optimistic headline markets.
For investors and policymakers, the combined signals matter for three reasons. First, the energy-driven inflation impulse could complicate central-bank calculations at a time when equities have priced in a soft-landing narrative. Second, Beijing’s payment-system push and tax incentives for CDRs are incremental but meaningful steps toward deeper, more resilient onshore capital markets; they reduce the attractiveness of offshore listings and nudge foreign-exchange plumbing toward RMB. Third, the Apple plan to convert Siri into a conversational AI later in 2026, noted in market coverage, is an early reminder that the technology sector’s next phase will be shaped by generative-AI competition as much as by semiconductor cycles.
Investors should watch whether the energy spike is transient or persistent, whether gold’s new high marks a durable re-rating of inflation and tail-risk premiums, and how Chinese capital-market measures affect cross-border flows. A short-lived weather squeeze would likely reinstate risk tolerance and push safe-haven prices down, but a prolonged disruption to LNG and heating fuel supplies would keep inflationary pressures front and centre and complicate policy trade-offs for major central banks.