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<\/p>\nGlobal financial markets have been hit by a broad sell-off, with equities, commodities and digital currencies falling sharply amid growing concern over artificial intelligence investment and the future direction of US monetary policy.<\/p>\n
The FTSE 100 slipped at the open, tracking heavy losses across international markets as volatility in precious metals spread rapidly through global trading sessions.<\/p>\n
Gold prices fell by more than six per cent to around $4,530 per ounce, after having reached close to $5,600 only days earlier.<\/p>\n
Silver recorded even steeper losses, plunging 12 per cent to below $75 after recently breaking above $120.<\/p>\n
Energy markets were also caught up in the downturn, with crude oil prices dropping by more than five per cent to below $66 a barrel.<\/p>\n
Asian markets experienced some of the most pronounced moves, with South Korea\u2019s Kospi index falling by five per cent and triggering a temporary trading halt.<\/p>\n
Shares in major technology firms were among the hardest hit in Seoul, with SK Hynix falling by more than eight per cent and Samsung down over five per cent.<\/p>\n
Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said: “Traders are unnerved by the market tumult witnessed on Friday in precious metals.”<\/p>\n
Analysts said the market turbulence was exacerbated by Donald Trump\u2019s decision to nominate Kevin Warsh as chair of the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n
The Nasdaq composite fell as Investors retreated<\/p>\n
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GETTY\/Google Finance<\/p>\n
Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, compared the appointment to a pivotal period in US monetary history.<\/p>\n
Mr Scaramucci said: “The market has decided that Kevin Warsh is Paul Volcker.”<\/p>\n
Paul Volcker served as Federal Reserve chairman between 1979 and 1987 and was associated with aggressive interest rate rises to curb inflation, a policy approach that often weighed heavily on asset prices.<\/p>\n
Rhona O\u2019Connell, head of market analysis at StoneX, said the nomination removed a source of uncertainty that had previously driven investors towards gold and away from the dollar.<\/p>\n
Mr Warsh is widely expected by market participants to support efforts to reduce the United States\u2019 national debt burden.<\/p>\n
Concerns about a potential bubble in artificial intelligence investment have also intensified selling pressure, particularly in major technology stocks.<\/p>\n
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS<\/p>\n
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After record high, gold and silver prices tumbled over the weekend<\/p>\n
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Microsoft shares continued to fall after a 10 per cent decline the previous day, which wiped $357billion from the company\u2019s market capitalisation in the second-largest single-day loss on record.<\/p>\n
The decline followed renewed scrutiny of the technology company\u2019s plans for large-scale spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and uncertainty over when such investments may generate returns.<\/p>\n
Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said: “The sell-off is reflecting AI mega-cap bubble risk, in a familiar Monday morning echo of Wall Street\u2019s late-week loss of balance.”<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 index fell by more than one per cent, while Taiwan\u2019s stock exchange declined by over two per cent, weighing on shares linked to semiconductor manufacturing.<\/p>\n
Markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai and other parts of Asia also moved lower as risk sentiment deteriorated.<\/p>\n
Digital currencies extended their losses as the global market sell-off deepened.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin fell to a ten-month low, sliding as much as 2.5 per cent overnight to $74,541.<\/p>\n
The decline brought the cryptocurrency close to its weakest level since Mr Trump returned to the presidency just over a year ago.<\/p>\n
January marked a particularly difficult period for Bitcoin, which fell by nearly 11 per cent during the month.<\/p>\n
The drop represented the fourth consecutive monthly decline for the digital currency, its longest losing streak since 2018.<\/p>\n
Other cryptocurrencies also fell, with Ether down four per cent and Solana losing 1.6 per cent.<\/p>\n
Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, said: “A further drop through the 2021 highs around $70,000 would represent a damaging long-term confidence hit.”<\/p>\n
Analysts warned that momentum in global markets remains fragile, with few signs that selling pressure is easing.<\/p>\n
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The commodity markets fell sharply on Monday morning <\/p>\n
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Trading Economics <\/p>\n
Retail investors who entered the gold market during its recent rally have suffered heavy losses as prices reversed sharply.<\/p>\n
Merry Chen, a 42-year-old investor from Hangzhou in China, opened a futures account last week and saw her 1 million yuan investment rise by 60 per cent within 48 hours.<\/p>\n
When gold suffered its steepest single-day fall since 1983 on Friday, she was forced to liquidate her position, losing 750,000 yuan, equivalent to an 84 per cent decline from her peak.<\/p>\n
Ms Chen said: “I never imagined it could be this intense.<\/p>\n
“It felt like a trip to a casino in Macau.”<\/p>\n
Pressure on precious metals traders increased further after CME Group raised margin requirements on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Despite the volatility, some analysts said gold\u2019s longer-term fundamentals remain intact.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays, said: “Despite screens flashing \u2018overvalued,\u2019 a certain amount of premium to gold\u2019s fair value looks durable, suggesting gold is not a bubble.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global financial markets have been hit by a broad sell-off, with equities, commodities and digital currencies falling sharply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,2222,50,2331,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-404115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-money","tag-news","tag-sgg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}