Daily Brief – Gold

Gold

With Spot Gold at USD 5392, Friday saw not one but two US banks break cover and forecast that the price would reach USD 6000 by year end 2026. Indeed, JP Morgan has predicted it will reach USD 6300 a further 20% lurch up from here. Apart from Central Bank buying, the most cited reason is global uncertainty mainly down to POTUS and finally the outbreak of war on Saturday morning in the Gulf between the USA, Israel, and Iran and the consequent further potential regional hostilities and the much broader global economic fallout.

EUR/GBP 0.8770.

US Dollar

The US Producer Price Index rose 0.5% versus the expected 0.3% in January and while that may not sound dramatic, it further supports the narrative of inflation in the US economy. That plus uncertainty over what the US will do if the regime changes in Iran that the US seeks is enough at present to underpin the Dollar.

EUR/USD 1.1742.

Dubai

It is not just disillusioned entrepreneurial Brits fed up with a non-supportive UK government who are gravitating to Dubai, it is also non-UK Europeans who are setting up shop there with 4,880 European companies joining the Dubai Chamber of Commerce in 2025. The population continues to grow and now tops 4 million. Dubai saw 1600 new digital start-ups in 2025 and Dubai is welcoming them by making entry and work visas simple, which is all part of the support environment to achieve the Emirate’s target of growing income to EUR 23 billion annually from digital transformation. 

EUR/JPY 184.31.

Gorton and Denton

When the result came through on Friday, there was a collective gasp that the Greens should have won and by such a considerable margin over Reform with Labour trailing in third place. Saloon Bar bores may dismiss all this as tactical voting but with a 47% turnout and an electorate of just under 37,000, the fact that the Greens secured 14,980, with Reform 10,578, and Labour 9364 despite them enjoying a previous majority of 13,000, smacks of something rather more fundamental. As we have written previously, the polls suggest that much of East and Southeast London has similarly gone Green. Back to Gorton and Denton, in these times it is perhaps reassuring but probably not so much for under pressure PM Starmer that some things don’t change in UK politics with the Monster Raving Loony Party fielding their candidate who really is named Sir Oink A-Lot and who managed to win 159 votes. 

GBP/US 1.3388.

Walk Like A Man

This day 63 years ago in 1963 the Four Seasons had this song at Number One which remarkably was their third consecutive Number One Hit where it stayed for 3 weeks. Despite the recording session being interrupted by both fire and water flooding into the studio, the group did not waver. Ooh-whee-ooh…indeed.

Ooh-whee-ooh
(Walk, walk, walk, walk) ooh
Ooh-whee-ooh
Walk like a man

Oh, how you tried (ooh-ah) to cut me down to size (ooh-ah)
Tellin’ dirty lies to my friends (ooh-ah, ooh-ah, ooh-ah, ooh)
But my own father said, “Give her up, don’t bother
The world isn’t comin’ to an end”

(He said)
“Walk like a man, talk like a man
Walk like a man, my son
No woman’s worth crawlin’ on the earth
So walk like a man, my son”

Ooh-whee-ooh
(Walk, walk, walk, walk) ooh
Ooh-whee-ooh (ooh, ooh)

Bye, baby (ooh-ah), I don’t-a mean maybe (ooh-ah)
Gonna get along somehow (ooh-ah, ooh-ah, ooh-ah, ooh)
Soon you’ll be cryin’ (ooh-ah) on account

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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