🌍 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 Kevin 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! 🍻
All charts by KoyFin | Get 10% off your order
Wednesdays are all about hard-core investing and trading with Simon Brown’s WorldWide Markets podcast (previously JSE Direct). JSE Direct started life on ClassicFM in July 2008 and became a podcast in 2011. Every week Simon shares his views on the state of global economies, individual shares and events moving markets.
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