Commodities took center stage this week, muscling aside mega-cap tech as sharp rallies in precious metals and U.S. natural gas reverberated across global markets.
Gold flirted with the record $5,000-per-ounce mark during Friday's session, capping its strongest weekly performance since March 2020, while silver blasted through the $100-per-ounce threshold to a new all-time high.
Compared with levels a year ago, gold and silver — tracked by the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SIL) — are now up roughly 81% and 230%, respectively.
Wall Street analysts increasingly described the precious-metal rally as structural rather than speculative, driven by growing private-sector demand for hard assets seen as protection against geopolitical risk and fears over Fed independence.
Silver And Gold Enter Parabolic Mode
Strongest Weekly Surge Ever For Natural Gas
Meanwhile, an Arctic blast sweeping across the U.S. triggered one of the most extreme price surges ever recorded in the Henry Hub natural gas market.
Prices spiked more than 70% in just a few days, jumping from around $3 per million British thermal units to above $5, as expectations of surging heating demand collided with fears of supply disruptions.
Trump Softens Stance On Europe
U.S. equities experienced a volatile week. Stocks initially sold off on concerns that President Donald Trump could impose new trade tariffs on Europe starting Feb. 1 unless the U.S. obtained ownership of Greenland.
Markets later rebounded sharply after Trump softened his stance, reopening the door to dialogue and negotiations with NATO.
Economic data delivered encouraging signals. The University of Michigan's revised consumer sentiment index for January rose to 56.4 on Friday, above the preliminary 54.0 estimate and marking the highest reading in five months.
Even more important, inflation fears continued to cool. One-year inflation expectations fell to 4.0%, the lowest since early 2025.
This cooling trend is consistent with recent developments in grocery prices. Sugar prices declined 16.6% year over year, wheat fell 10.9% and cheese dropped 7.5%.
Retail egg prices recorded the sharpest move, plunging 26% in January after peaking at a staggering 108% year-over-year increase in March 2025. Chicken breast prices fell 21%, while chicken wing prices collapsed 48% from a year earlier.
What’s Next
Next week, attention shifts to the Federal Reserve's policy meeting on Wednesday, where interest rates are widely expected to remain on hold at 3.50%–3.75%.
The earnings calendar is equally packed: mega-cap tech reports arrive midweek, with Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), $Microsoft Corp.(MSFT)$ (NYSE:MSFT) and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) on Wednesday, followed by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) on Thursday.
Investors will also hear from major defense contractors, credit-card giants Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA), Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) and American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP), and energy heavyweights Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX).