Gold Extends Record Rally, US Stock Futures Drop: Markets Wrap

Gold surged for a ninth straight day, breaking above $5,550 as rising geopolitical tensions and expectations of Federal Reserve easing boosted demand. Oil also advanced as concerns over Iran intensified.

The precious metal rose 1.5% on Thursday, extending its rally this year to 27%. Silver climbed almost 1% to an all-time high as precious metals continued their breakneck advance. West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose to the highest level since September after President Donald Trump warned Iran to make a nuclear deal.

Trump warned Iran to make a nuclear deal with the US or face military strikes far worse than the attack he ordered last June, increasing pressure on the regime and propelling oil prices higher. Trump is mulling a strike after preliminary talks with Iran, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Trump hasn’t made a final call on how to proceed with Iran, it reported.

Elsewhere, US equity-index futures fell in early trading as mixed earnings from tech megacaps raised fresh questions about the durability of the artificial intelligence trade.

Futures for the Nasdaq 100 Index declined 0.3% and contracts for the S&P 500 Index edged lower. While Tesla Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. shares gained in extended trading, Microsoft Corp. dropped in a potential sign of unease with its spending. In Asia, Samsung Electronics Co.’s profit at its chip unit beat estimates.

In the New York session, US stocks and Treasuries were broadly stable after the Federal Reserve held rates as expected. On Wednesday, the dollar rose and the yen weakened after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent touted a strong greenback, dousing speculation the US would help support the Japanese currency. The S&P 500 ended Wednesday little changed, while the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3%.

Stocks have rallied globally as investors bet that the billions tech companies are pouring into artificial intelligence will yield future profits. A key test for further gains will be the path for interest rates after the Fed’s latest policy decision, which refrained from signaling any imminent resumption of rate cuts amid a solid economy.

“The Fed song remains the same — lower interest rates may be coming, but investors will have to remain patient,” said Ellen Zentner at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. “With signs of stabilization in the labor market and inflation holding steady, the Fed is in position to play the wait-and-see game.”

The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.24% in early Asian trading after Fed Chair Jerome Powell refrained from signaling any imminent resumption of rate cuts amid a solid economy.

The Federal Open Market Committee voted 10-2 to hold the benchmark federal funds rate in a range of 3.5%-3.75%. Governors Christopher Waller and Stephen Miran dissented in favor of a quarter-point reduction.

Just two dissents underscored how tight the consensus is, which means any new Fed Chair that comes in after Powell’s term is up will have a hard time convincing other officials that rates need to go much lower, according to Sonu Varghese at Carson Group.

“The message: the Fed is comfortable on pause at 3.5% to 3.75% and could stay there for a while as it looks to confirm that the labor market is in the process of stabilizing, police the tariff-driven inflation peak still to come and assess the impact of fiscal stimulus from coming tax refunds,” said Krishna Guha at Evercore.

Elsewhere, President Trump’s pick to chair the Fed could be announced “in the next week or so,” Bessent said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

Corporate Highlights:

Microsoft’s spending surged to a record high and cloud sales growth slowed, sending the shares down amid investor concerns that it could take longer than expected for the company’s AI investments to pay off.
Meta’s robust advertising business, which boosted its current-quarter outlook above estimates, is making it possible for the company to invest at record levels on artificial intelligence this year.
Samsung’s chip unit blew past expectations with a more than five-fold profit gain in the December quarter, boosted by an artificial intelligence boom, and announced a $2.5 billion buyback.
Amazon.com Inc. is cutting 16,000 corporate jobs in an effort to remove layers of bureaucracy and “increase ownership,” becoming the latest company to target managers for layoffs in recent years.
Tesla Inc. revealed plans to invest $2 billion into Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, while reporting higher-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter.
Home Depot Inc. is cutting jobs across several teams and requiring corporate staff to return to the office, as the world’s largest home-improvement retailer contends with a slowdown in business caused by the frozen housing market.