Gold plays tricks again as the Asian market opens. On January 7th, spot gold fluctuated around $4499 per ounce, while London gold suddenly surged to a weekly high, soaring nearly $200 in one day. What's going on?

Simply put, the market is panicking. There have been many recent events—the US meddling in Venezuela, along with Trump's remarks about Greenland and Mexico—causing investors to seek safe-haven assets. Meanwhile, US manufacturing data is also disappointing. These factors combined have pushed gold prices higher.

The deeper reason is long-term. Gold already rose 66% last year, mainly driven by geopolitical tensions and expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts. Currently, central banks and gold ETFs around the world are continuously buying, as if an invisible hand is supporting the upward trend in gold prices.

Two things to watch next: the US December non-farm payrolls report this Friday, and the Fed's interest rate cut plans for this year. Additionally, the final December PMI figures for Europe and the US will be released today, which traders cannot afford to miss.

From a technical perspective, gold formed a large bullish candlestick yesterday, staying above $4470. Both the daily and 4-hour charts show Bollinger Bands and RSI signaling strong bullish momentum—the trend is indeed very clear.