Silver had been trending higher since early September, forming a steady pattern of higher highs and higher lows. That run carried it up toward the January peak (~$120) before momentum turned sharply. Once the structure broke, selling accelerated quickly, taking silver down into the mid‑70s. The speed of the move reflects how silver typically behaves when liquidity thins and positioning unwinds.
Japanese equities have attracted attention, with the Nikkei 225 returning to levels last seen in the late 1980s and the TOPIX moving higher. This rebound has prompted investors to revisit a market associated with slow growth. The tone around Japan has changed, and not just at the margin. The key question now is whether this strength reflects improvement in how companies are run, or whether it is being flattered by a weaker yen and overseas investors positioning for gains.
Markets spent the week juggling two familiar forces: what central banks are willing to say, and what the data is quietly implying. The key anchor was the Fed’s January decision, where policymakers kept the policy rate unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75%. In its statement, the Fed repeated that growth has been “expanding at a solid pace”, noted that job gains have “remained low” with the unemployment rate showing “some signs of stabilisation”, and said inflation remains “somewhat elevated”.
On major decision days, FX charts often appear unusually calm as the market hovers in tight ranges. Then, almost instantly, it turns into chaos. Central bank meetings from the Fed, ECB, or BoE compress a huge amount of macroeconomic expectation into a few minutes of statements, projections, and press-conference remarks. Once released, the market absorbs this information in a single burst, and price action reacts accordingly.
Europe has long traded at a valuation discount to the US, visible across simple headline metrics such as P/E and P/B. What is more striking is that, even in 2026 and even after periods of strong performance in European indices, the discount remains wide enough to keep resurfacing in allocation discussions. So, the question is not whether Europe is “cheap” in relative terms, but whether the discount is beginning to look excessive in relation to the region’s earnings outlook and balance-sheet resilience, or whether it still reflects deeper, structural differences that are unlikely to disappear.
