The myriad of geopolitical tensions has propelled silver to $90 per ounce for the first time - the metal has surged nearly 30% in the first nine trading days of the year. Gold prices have also climbed to yet another record, with $5,000 an ounce the next obvious target for traders to fixate on.
In addition to concern over the next steps in Iran, there are talks later in the day involving the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark and U.S. Vice President JD Vance alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff plan to travel to Moscow soon to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to reports.
For Wall Street, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are all reporting earnings. S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow futures prices are fractionally lower right now, and it has been a bit of a tough run for financials this week. Trump's proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% has sent plenty of share prices lower, while the biggest of the big guns, JPMorgan, suffered a more than 4% tumble on Tuesday as its investment banking fees caused disappointment.
Elsewhere, investors have mostly looked past China reporting a record trade surplus of nearly $1.2 trillion in 2025, led by booming exports to non-U.S. markets.
Focus has been heavily on the yen instead, with Japan's finance minister sending another explicit intervention warning after the currency hit an 18-month low as a weak bond sale compounded the pressure of the snap election.
And to round things off, there's a packed schedule of Federal Reserve speakers later, including Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson, Trump appointee Stephen Miran, Minneapolis Fed's Neel Kashkari, Atlanta Fed's Raphael Bostic and the New York Fed's John Williams. That could all make very interesting viewing after this week's move by the Trump administration to investigate Fed chief Jerome Powell over the costly refurbishment of the central bank's headquarters.
