December 1 Morning Brief: Precious metals surge, tech stocks lead gains, and crypto assets stabilize

Global Financial Hotspots Overview

U.S. stocks reopened on Friday (November 28) after the Thanksgiving holiday, with market expectations for a Fed rate cut in December intensifying. Coupled with the further dissipation of tech bubble concerns, the three major indices all rose sharply, marking five consecutive days of gains. The Dow Jones rose 0.61%, the S&P 500 increased 0.54%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.65%. European markets remained stable, with the UK FTSE 100, France CAC 40, and Germany DAX 30 rising 0.27%, 0.29%, and 0.29% respectively. The China Golden Dragon Index rebounded 0.54%.

Precious Metals and Commodities Hit New Highs

Risk sentiment clearly improved, driving a significant surge in precious metals. Silver performed the best, soaring 5.7% to $56.46 per ounce, successfully breaking through the peak set during the tense London market in October, with year-to-date gains approaching 100%. LME copper futures followed closely, rising 2.5% to a record high. Gold also gained 1.35%, successfully surpassing the $4,200 mark, closing at $4,218.7 per ounce.

This wave of precious metal gains is closely related to volatility in the futures market. On November 28, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange(CME Group) experienced a system outage due to a data center cooling system failure, temporarily halting trading. As the system recovered, the main COMEX silver contract surged over 6%, breaking through $57 per ounce, with market expectations for continued rises in precious metals remaining strong.

Cryptocurrencies Stabilize, Supporting Consumer Confidence

Bitcoin(BTC) is currently trading at $87.74K, up 0.41% in 24 hours; Ethereum(ETH) is at $2.95K, up 0.24% in 24 hours. The relative stability of cryptocurrencies provides investors with a risk hedging tool.

Strong Performance in Consumer Data

“Black Friday” online sales hit a new record. According to Adobe Analytics final data, U.S. consumers spent $11.8 billion online on that day, up 9.1% year-over-year, setting a new record. Salesforce data shows total Black Friday spending in the U.S. reached $18 billion, up 3% year-over-year. Retail giants Walmart and Amazon saw their stock prices rise 1.3% and 1.8% respectively, with Amazon being the strongest component of the Dow.

Frequent Investment Moves in Tech Industry Chain

Micron Technology plans to invest $9.6 billion to build a factory in Japan, producing high-bandwidth memory(HBM) chips for AI applications, expected to start shipping around 2028. Intel is also rumored to produce low-cost M-series processors for Apple, with shipments possibly beginning as early as 2027. This news drove Intel’s stock price up 8.7% on Friday to $40, marking five consecutive days of gains with a total increase of over 18%.

In contrast, data analytics firm Palantir faced a collective sell-off, falling 16% in November, its worst month since August 2023, mainly due to valuation concerns over AI concept stocks.

Energy Markets Remain Balanced

OPEC+ generally agreed to maintain a pause on production increases through the first quarter of 2026, while approving a mechanism to assess each participating country’s maximum sustainable capacity, providing a basis for oil production quotas in 2027. WTI crude oil fell slightly by 0.12% on Friday, closing at $58.48 per barrel.

Gold Investment Enthusiasm Continues

A Goldman Sachs survey of over 900 institutional clients shows that 36% expect gold to rise above $5,000 per ounce by the end of 2026, while another 33% expect prices between $4,500 and $5,000. Overall, more than 70% of investors are optimistic about gold prices next year. Among respondents, 38% cited central bank buying as the main driver of gold price increases, followed by fiscal concerns.

Market Regulation Developments

UK HM Revenue & Customs(HMRC) announced new regulations that, starting January 1, 2026, all cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the UK must collect and retain full transaction records of users and report them to HMRC in full by 2027, aiming to combat crypto asset tax evasion.

Today’s Key Focus

Investors should closely monitor upcoming economic indicators, including Australia’s Q3 oil exploration expenditure annual rate, China’s November SPGI Manufacturing PMI, US November ISM Manufacturing PMI, and Eurozone November SPGI Manufacturing PMI final figures, as these data releases could significantly impact the markets.