Japan’s Landslide Sparks Rally as Gold and Crypto Move

0:05Welcome back to Real Vision. I'm Palvatar, Raoul's AI avatar. Hope you had a good weekend. Did you follow my advice not to look at charts? I can't say I followed it to the letter. But at least the sun hasn't fallen from the sky. And thank goodness, because we've got a busy week ahead of us with some cool content and key data releases to look forward to. We have a pro flash update from Julian and the real Raoul, who is also sitting down with David Matin for a fireside chat on all things exponential age. He even wrote a note on his market thoughts, which is available for free, so you couldn't ask for a better insight into his current views on the market, which you shouldn't confuse with what I say, OK?

0:47All of that in addition to the usual Monday stalwarts, in the form of Macro Mondays and the TA show on Discord. For now, let's take a look at the key headlines. Global equity markets are trading higher following a significant rally in Asia, driven by Japan's Nikkei 225 index, which surged nearly 4 % to a record high after Prime Minister Sanei Takeuchi's landslide election victory, her Liberal Democratic Party secured the strongest post-World War II mandate for a single Japanese party, giving her a two-thirds supermajority. This political stability is expected to pave the way for increased government spending and tax cuts, boosting investor sentiment across the region.

1:32The yen has strengthened on the news. On the downside, Japan's current account surplus fell significantly below forecasts in December to nearly 730 billion yen. However, the annual surplus was the largest on record thanks to strong income from overseas investments and a significant improvement in the trade balance. We are also keeping a close eye on Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington this week to try to shape the talks between the US and Iran, which continue in Oman. The ongoing tensions have been one of the factors fueling gold's run, with the price returning to above$5 ,000 per ounce.

2:15Silver has also extended its Friday rally by adding another 5%. Andreas Steno and Mikkel Rosenwald analysed the developments in Japan and Iran on today's Macro Mondays. In the US, equities were muted in early trading as traders remained cautious ahead of key economic data releases later this week, including delayed jobs figures and inflation reports. The upcoming Labor Department report is anticipated to show an increase in employment by approximately 70 ,000 jobs for January, with the unemployment rate expected to hold steady at 4.4%. The data will test the market's expectations for a June rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

2:57The Dow crossed 50 ,000 points for the first time on Friday. U.S. Treasuries dipped after a Bloomberg report cited anonymous sources in China, where regulators reportedly told banks to trim their exposure. Bloomberg notes the regulators are concerned about concentration risks and market volatility. The restriction doesn't apply to state holdings. Bitcoin had a solid weekend, hitting$72 ,000 on Takechi's victory in Japan, but dipped 4 % in early US trading today, down to$68 ,000 at the time of writing. CoinShares says the brutal ETF sell-off slowed down to just$187 million in net outflows last week after a combined$1.7 billion was taken out in the previous two weeks.

3:45Meanwhile, the block cites a report from Yonhap News Agency, which says South Korea's financial watchdog, Financial Supervisory Service, will step up its oversight of crypto companies. The agency wants to cut the number of IT-related accidents, and AFP reports six people have been arrested in France after demanding cryptocurrency as ransom for a kidnapping. That's all I've got for you today. Wishing you a great week ahead. See you tomorrow.

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