1. Stocks leapt higher on Tuesday amid brighter prospects for an EU-US trade deal following President Trump’s decision to push back the introduction of 50% tariffs on imports from the bloc. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped about 0.7%, or around 300 points, while the benchmark S&P 500 shot up 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the averages to the upside, rising around 1.3%. After Monday’s Memorial Day market closure, stocks are eyeing a comeback from Friday’s losses as investors welcomed signs of thawing in frosty US-EU trade relations. Another boost came from a slide in Treasury yields and a stronger dollar, credited to signs that Japan will cut back on bond sales after a market rout.
2. Gold prices continue to struggle and have been unable to hold initial support at $3,300 an ounce, as the U.S. manufacturing sector shows better-than-expected activity—even as it continues to contract. The Commerce Department announced Tuesday that U.S. durable goods orders fell 6.3% last month, following March’s revised increase of 7.5%. The data was better than expected, as economists had forecasted a 7.6% drop in sales. Core durable goods, which exclude the volatile transportation sector, increased 0.2% in April, beating the consensus forecast of a 0.1% decrease. Finally, non-defense capital goods excluding airplane manufacturing dropped -1.3%, compared to March’s 0.3% increase; economists were looking for a 0.1% decline. The gold market is not seeing much reaction to the mixed manufacturing data; however, analysts note that any report easing initial fears of a harsh economic slowdown will weigh on gold’s safe-haven demand.
3. The Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) released draft proposals on Tuesday to further open up domestic futures to overseas investors and brokers as part of an effort to help internationalize the renminbi. China is the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals by far, but much of the trade is priced by overseas benchmarks. ShFE has long been working on plans to build its global presence and challenge the dominance of the rival London Metal Exchange. “This announcement is basically a constitutional change for the entire ShFE opening up,” said Tiger Shi, CEO of broker BANDS Financial. “Access for foreign investors to all the ShFE products is on a fast track from now on.” The changes under consideration include allowing foreign brokers and other traders directly onto the exchange instead of through an onshore intermediary as is the case today. Participants would also be allowed to post margins in foreign currencies like the U.S. dollar.
4. Home-price gains in the U.S. slowed in March as listings climbed without a corresponding uptick in buyer demand. The national gauge of prices was up 3.4% from a year earlier, according to data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller. That was smaller than the 4% annual increase in February. In areas where supplies remain tight, buyers are still getting dragged into bidding wars. Among 20 major cities, New York had the biggest annual price gain in March, at 8%. Prices were up 6.5% in Chicago and 5.9% in Cleveland. In places where prices fell, Tampa, Florida, experienced the largest decline, at 2.2%. While annual price growth continued to decelerate nationally, “the market experienced its strongest monthly gains so far in 2025,” Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement. Eighteen of the 20 cities in the index had monthly increases before seasonal adjustment, signaling that price increases were widespread across the country.
5. Filings for U.S. jobless aid jumped last week but American workers broadly remain secure in their jobs despite economic uncertainty over global trade. Jobless benefits applications rose by 14,000 to 240,000 for the week ending May 24, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts had forecasted 226,000 new applications. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy in the spring of 2020, wiping out millions of jobs.
6. Crude oil prices are set for another weekly decline following news that OPEC+ was planning to boost production by another 411,000 barrels daily in July. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $63.84 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $60.67 per barrel, both slightly down on Thursday but higher than at the start of the week.
7. EUR/USD extends its reversal and is trading near 1.1330 at the time of writing as investors trim their Dollar shorts, ahead of the release of April’s U.S. Personal Consumer Expenditures Price Index numbers. The pair jumped on Thursday, after a federal court reversed the block on tariffs, triggering a sharp U.S. Dollar sell-off.
8. EUR/USD extends its reversal and is trading near 1.1330 at the time of writing as investors trim their Dollar shorts, ahead of the release of April’s U.S. Personal Consumer Expenditures Price Index numbers. The pair jumped on Thursday, triggering a sharp U.S. Dollar sell-off.
The latest reading of the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge showed price increases slowed in April as inflation remained above the Fed’s 2% target. The “core” Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, which strips out food and energy costs and is closely watched by the central bank, rose 2.5% on an annual basis, in line with expectations and lower than the 2.7% seen in March. Core prices rose 0.1% in April from the prior month, in line with expectations and the monthly increase seen in March. On a yearly basis, PCE increased by 2.1%, below the 2.2% economists had expected.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods narrowed sharply in April as the boost from the front-running of imports ahead of tariffs faded. The goods trade gap contracted 46.0% to $87.6 billion last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Friday. Goods imports decreased $68.4 billion to $276.1 billion. Exports of goods increased $6.3 billion to $188.5 billion. Economists said that they could see some businesses trying to bring in more imports given the lack of clarity about what happens after the 90-day pauses. A record trade gap accounted for a large part of the 0.2% annualized rate of decline in gross domestic product in the first quarter.
Consumer confidence rebounded in May after five straight months of declines. The latest index reading from the Conference Board was 98 in May, well above the 85.7 seen in April and the 87.1 economists had expected. The expectations index surged off its 13-year low seen in April, reaching 72.8 in May, far above the 55.4 in the month prior. This marked the largest month-over-month increase for that metric since May 2009. “This rebound is a welcome step in the right direction, but like the deal with China it may prove only a temporary reprieve until we get clearer long-term clarity on trade policy,” Wells Fargo senior economist Tim Quinlan wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.
U.S. homeowners and prospective buyers are feeling the most uncertain about the real estate market since 2023, a Bank of America survey showed on Wednesday, as rising mortgage rates deter buyers. Of the 2,000 respondents to BofA’s poll, 60% said they could not tell whether it was a good time to buy a home, according to a report published by the nation’s second largest lender. That is up from 57% last year and 48% in 2023. The sluggish start to a spring season contrasts with the first quarter, when BofA saw an 80% jump in mortgage applications as buyers were tempted by increasing home inventory and lower long-term bond yields. Still, the survey showed 52% of prospective home buyers felt the market was better now than it was a year ago. Three out of four expected home prices and interest rates to fall and are waiting until then to buy a new home, up from 62% in 2023.
Volatility should be expected to remain high as investors will be closely watching for hints on the upcoming monetary policy direction. Many investors have redoubled their efforts to ensure that their portfolios are sufficiently diversified in the hope that they will be able to withstand corrections in multiple market sectors. Many of these investors have included physical precious metals as part of their diversification plans, given their long history as a hedge against both inflation and during times of economic turmoil. Remember, the key to profitability through the ownership of physical precious metals is to own the physical product and hold it for the long term. Always remember that you should never overextend your ability to maintain ownership of your precious metals over the long run.
Trading Department – Precious Metals International Ltd.
Friday to Friday Close (New York Closing Prices)
| May. 23, 2025 | May. 30, 2025 | Net Change | ||
| Gold | $3,362.69 | $3,291.26 | -71.43 | -2.12% |
| Silver | $33.46 | $32.89 | -0.57 | -1.70% |
| Platinum | $1,096.00 | $1,056.57 | -39.43 | -3.60% |
| Palladium | $1,004.34 | $970.83 | -33.51 | -3.34% |
| Dow | 41603.07 | 42264.72 | 661.65 | 1.59% |
Month End to Month End Close
| Apr. 30, 2025 | May. 30, 2025 | Net Change | ||
| Gold | $3,305.44 | $3,291.26 | -14.18 | -0.43% |
| Silver | $32.64 | $32.89 | 0.25 | 0.77% |
| Platinum | $970.19 | $1,056.57 | 86.38 | 8.90% |
| Palladium | $943.80 | $970.83 | 27.03 | 2.86% |
| Dow | 40669.36 | 42264.72 | 1595.36 | 3.92% |
Previous Year Comparison
| May. 31, 2024 | May. 30, 2025 | Net Change | ||
| Gold | $2,326.00 | $3,291.26 | 965.26 | 41.50% |
| Silver | $30.32 | $32.89 | 2.57 | 8.48% |
| Platinum | $1,037.75 | $1,056.57 | 18.82 | 1.81% |
| Palladium | $913.22 | $970.83 | 57.61 | 6.31% |
| Dow | 38694.99 | 42264.72 | 3569.73 | 9.23% |
Here are your Short-Term Support and Resistance Levels for the upcoming week.
| Gold | Silver | |
| Support | 3252/3147/3090 | 32.50/31.50/30.89 |
| Resistance | 3414/3471/3576 | 34.11/34.72/35.72 |
| Platinum | Palladiumn | |
| Support | 1023/949/910 | 953/909/862 |
| Resistance | 1136/1175/1249 | 1043/1090/1133 |