Baltic
Dry Index. 1999 +219 Brent Crude 67.93
Spot Gold 5256 Spot Silver 115.50
US 2 Year Yield 3.53 -0.03
US Federal Debt. 38.663 trillion US GDP 31.103 trillion.
28 January 1807. London's Pall Mall becomes the first street lit by gaslight.
It is Federal Reserve day two. Interest rate decision day at the US central bank, but with President Trump out talking down the dollar, gold and silver soaring, and US stocks near the highs, leaving their key interest rate unchanged is likely.
President Trump’s threat to raise South Korea’s tariff to 25 percent seems to have lasted all of one day.
Asia markets mixed after S&P 500 hits record,
South Korea pushes fresh highs
Published Tue, Jan 27 2026 6:59 PM EST
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Wednesday,
breaking ranks with Wall Street after the S&P 500 closed at a
record high.
The broad market index gained 0.41% to
finish at 6,978.60, supported by gains in Apple and Microsoft
South Korea’s Kospi and Kosdaq continued
to push fresh records, gaining 1.48% and 3.42% respectively.
However, Japan’s Nikkei 225 slumped 0.55%,
dragged by basic materials stocks, while the Topix fell 0.88%.
Late Tuesday, the yen strengthened to its
highest level in almost three months against the dollar, touching a low of
152.08 amid intervention expectations swirling around the currency.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was
up 2.27%, led by energy stocks, while the CSI 300 index on mainland China rose
0.47%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 reversed
earlier gains and fell 0.13% to 8,929.9, snapping a three-day winning streak.
Australia saw headline inflation come in
at 3.6% in the last quarter of 2025, its highest level in six quarters.
On the commodities front, spot gold prices
also reached a fresh record of $5,255.71 per ounce.
Overnight in the U.S., the Nasdaq Composite climbed
0.91%, while the Dow Jones
Industrial Average broke ranks, losing 408.99 points, or 0.83%, and
settling at 49,003.4.
S&P 500 futures were near the flatline
ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision and earnings reports from
major tech companies.
The central bank is widely
expected to keep its benchmark interest rate steady at a target range
of 3.5% to 3.75%, but traders will be seeking hints on longer-term changes to
monetary policy.
Asia
markets mixed after S&P 500 hits record, South Korea pushes fresh highs
Dollar suffers worst one-day slide since last
April after Trump says currency hasn’t fallen too low
Published Tue, Jan 27 2026 5:08 PM EST
The U.S. dollar fell 1.3% on Tuesday, the
most since last April, after President Donald Trump declined to say
that the currency had fallen too much.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to
Iowa to promote his economic record, Trump was asked if he was comfortable with
the current value of the greenback and if he thought it had fallen too much
after sliding 10% over the past year.
“I think it’s great,” Trump said of the
weaker dollar. “I mean the value of the dollar, look at the business we’re
doing. No, [the] dollar is doing great. You know it’s very interesting, if you
look at China or Japan, I used to fight like hell with them because they always
wanted to devalue their yen ... you know that, the yen and yuan, and they’d
always want to devalue it. They devalue, devalue, devalue. And I said, ‘not
fair.’ They devalue, because it’s hard to compete when they devalue.”
The Dollar Index, which tracks
the U.S. currency against six leading trading partners (but not China), fell
the most in a single day since last April 10, when it tumbled almost 2% amid
mounting trade disputes and U.S. threats to impose a 145% tariff on China. That
same day, the S&P 500 slid 3.5% and the Nasdaq Composite sank 4.3%.
On Tuesday, the dollar also dropped to its
lowest level since February 2022.
Dollar
worst one-day rout since April. Trump says hasn't fallen too low
Gold vaults past $5,200 to record high
January 28, 2026 1:40 AM GMT
Jan 28 (Reuters) - Gold surged above
$5,200 an ounce on Wednesday to a record high, extending a historic rally
as economic and geopolitical uncertainty drove demand for the safe-haven
yellow metal.
Gold
vaults past $5,200 to record high | Reuters
In other news, our rapidly changing global
economy.
A year into Trump presidency, 'pivot to China'
gathers pace
January 28, 2026 4:51 AM GMT
BEIJING/HONG KONG, Jan 28 (Reuters) - When
U.S. President Donald Trump took office a year ago with an "America
First" agenda, many saw trouble for China's sluggish economy, but Beijing
has thawed frosty relationships with other trade partners to post a record
trade surplus.
While Trump's policies have strained ties
with traditional U.S. allies, China has turned its focus to fostering ties with
key partners, including Canada and India, analysts say.
As a result, the world's second-largest
economy's trade
surplus hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2025, monthly forex inflows
touched $100 billion, the largest ever, and the global usage of China's
currency, the yuan, has expanded.
When British Prime Minister Keir
Starmer lands
in China on Wednesday evening hoping to reinvigorate recently strained
business ties, analysts and experts say Beijing is expected to further expand
its global political and economic influence.
Backed by its $20 trillion economy and $45
trillion worth of stock and bond markets, China is emerging as a "steady
partner" for many countries, said Aleksandar Tomic, economics professor at
Boston College.
"I think China has done a good job
and rightly so to position itself as the reliable and stable trade
partner," said Derrick Irwin, co-head of intrinsic emerging markets equity
at Allspring Global Investments.
"They basically said, look, you've
got a massive trade partner in the U.S. that's become a little more uncertain.
We can offer predictability and certainty. And I think that's very fair."
Starmer's four-day visit to China will be
the first by a British prime minister since 2018 and follows that of Canadian
Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this month, the first Canadian prime
minister to visit Beijing since 2017.
During Carney's visit the two nations
signed an economic
deal to tear down trade barriers and forge a new strategic
relationship. Carney described China as "a more predictable and reliable
partner".
But China is not alone in eyeing new trade
pacts to de-risk from the United States. India and the European Union struck a
long‑delayed trade
deal on Tuesday that will slash tariffs on most goods, boosting two‑way
trade to potentially double European exports to the South Asian country by
2032.
More
A
year into Trump presidency, 'pivot to China' gathers pace | Reuters
World's 'middle powers' de-risking from America
January 27, 2026 11:00 AM GMT
LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's
Greenland tariff threat and U-turn last week
may have been a watershed for the world's "middle powers." For them,
rebooting globalization - with or without Washington - now looks far more
realistic than it did during last year's trade shock.
This year, the U.S. president has shifted
from using tariffsmainly to air long‑standing
trade grievances to wielding them as tools of territorial and military
leverage. And for the first time, that strategy has met firm resistance and
credible retaliation, forcing a climbdown.
Equally important, Europe, Canada and
other economies are ploughing ahead with trade liberalisation of their own,
even as the U.S. retreats into protectionism and an increasingly aggressive
trade posture.
If Trump's aim is to extricate the U.S.
from a multilateral rules-based trade system and replace it with a purely
transactional one, few now believe they can dissuade him.
But the rest of the globe seems determined
not to follow - and still believes it can preserve much of what Trump is trying
to dismantle.
Fast positioning himself as the
torchbearer for what he terms the "middle powers," Canada's Prime
Minister Mark Carney offered
a clear alternative to Trump's vision at the World Economic Forum in Davos last
week.
He said that even if a rules-based global
order is now over, Canada and other "middle powers" can act together
to avoid being victimized by American hegemony.
"When the rules no longer protect
you, you must protect yourself," he said.
Just back from trade negotiations
with China's President
Xi Jinping,
Carney's reward for such
"protection" was another wild Trump threat this weekend of 100% tariffs on Canadian goods.
But it's not just Canada.
The European Union, having finally flexed
its considerable trade muscle over the Greenland issue, has also stepped up its
trade negotiations around the world. It has finally wrapped up 25 years of
talks with South America's
Mercosur bloc and
looks set to conclude bilateral
negotiations with India this week, cutting tariffs on EU cars and Indian
steel.
Last year, the EU finalised
deals with Mexico, Indonesia and Switzerland. Vietnam is also
next on
the list.
India, faced with a collapse in bilateral talks
with Washington,
also finalized a trade deal with Britain and New Zealand last year. Carney, meantime, is set
to visit India in the first week of March and sign deals on uranium, energy,
minerals and artificial intelligence.
And so on.
GLOBAL TRADE ORGANIZATION?'
Writing from Davos last week, the U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations President Michael Froman said he did not see
Canada and the European powers abandoning the U.S. but instead seeking
"coalitions of the willing" to forge a new geopolitical equilibrium.
"Derisking, a term originally coined
by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to describe the European
Union's strategy toward China, is now being deployed against the United
States," Froman wrote. "Diversification away from the United States -
certainly in trade and potentially in financial assets - development of
indigenous defense capabilities, and long-discussed agendas of reform are top
of the agenda."
More
World's 'middle
powers' de-risking from America | Reuters
FTSE 100 Live: Gold rally continues; Starmer eyes
China trade
Tuesday 27 January 2026 7:03
am | Updated: Tuesday 27 January 2026
7:20 am
Gold’s magnificent rally was continuing on
Tuesday morning after breaking through the $5,100 mark for the first time.
The flurry to safe haven assets notched up
after Trump threatened Canada with 100 per cent tariffs if the country “made a
deal with China”.
Last week Canada’s Prime Minister Mark
Carney unveiled a “strategic
partnership” with
China and agreed to reduce tariffs, which Trump initially hailed “a good
thing”.
But tension between the neighbours boiled
again in recent days following Carney’s speech in Davos where he said the
US-led world order had been ruptured.
Trump’s showdown with Europe over the
future of Greenland also led to the fleeing of the stock market, after he
pulled back his threat of tariffs following butting heads with European
leaders.
Fears of another US shutdown also rocked
the already jittery markets, after Democrats threatened funding for the
Department of Homeland Security in the wake of shooting of Alex Pretti, a
37-year-old intensive care nurse, by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis
on Saturday.
Elsewhere, gold’s increase also came as
the yen extended its advance against the dollar.
Markets are on heightened alert of a Japan
government intervention, potentially with rare US assistance, after Prime
Minister Sanae Takaichi warned of action on “highly
abnormal movements”.
Monday’s milestone is the latest in the
historic run for the metal, with its pricing rocketing since Trump’s
inauguration in January 2025.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at
Interactive Investor, said: “Haven investments are still in demand given the
volatile backdrop, and silver posted a further six per cent gain as a result.”
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
US
Consumer Outlook at Its Darkest in 12 Years
January
27, 2026 at 10:16 PM GMT
US
consumer confidence plummeted in January to the lowest level in 12 years on more pessimistic views
from Americans worried about the nation’s economy, inflation and a weakening
labor market.
The
gauge by the Conference Board decreased to 84.5, from an upwardly revised 94.2
last month, data out Tuesday showed. The figure was the lowest since May 2014
and fell short of all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
After
a slight improvement in December, American consumer confidence resumed its
downward slide. Economists project the labor
market will largely remain stagnant this year, with limited job
opportunities.
In
write-in responses to the survey, consumers often mentioned prices of oil, gas
and groceries, said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board.
Mentions of politics, the labor market and health insurance also rose.
The
share of consumers that said jobs were currently hard to get was the highest
since February 2021, while the portion saying jobs were plentiful deteriorated.
Fewer Americans expect their incomes to rise in the coming months, prompting
consumers to cut back on vacation plans and approach big-ticket purchases like
new cars more cautiously.
US
Consumer Outlook at Its Darkest in 12 Years: Evening Briefing Americas -
Bloomberg
India and EU agree landmark trade deal after two decades of talks
27 January 2026
India and the European
Union have finalised a landmark free trade agreement after concluding
negotiations that have dragged on for two decades.
The deal was announced at
a summit in Delhi between Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and the EU's two
highest-ranking office-holders, European Commission president Ursula von der
Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa.
Both sides have referred
to the agreement as "the mother of all trade deals", creating a free
trade bloc of more than two billion people accounting for a quarter of the
global economy.
Talks in the final stages
focused on just a few small but important sticking points - access for European
carmakers to India's automobile sector, sensitive agricultural products and a
European scheme to place carbon-linked climate tariffs on imports.
The deal opens up India’s
vast and guarded market to its largest trading partner. Talks first began in
2007, but soon ran into repeated hurdles as both sides struggled to bridge deep
differences over market access, regulation and political sensitivities.
The talks were formally
restarted in July 2022 after Russia’s war in Ukraine gave new momentum to push
for the deal as the EU sought to reduce economic dependence on Russia and China
and diversify supply chains in Asia.
While the terms of the
deal were finalised on Tuesday, the formal signing of the agreement will not
take place until after a legal vetting process expected to last five to six
months, an Indian government official familiar with the matter said.
"Yesterday, a big
agreement was signed between the European Union and India," Mr Modi said
on X. "People around the world are calling this the mother of all deals.
This agreement will bring major opportunities for the 1.4 billion people of
India and the millions of people in Europe," he said.
“The EU and India make
history today, deepening the partnership between the world's biggest
democracies,” European Commission von der Leyen said, adding: “We have sent a
signal to the world that rules-based cooperation still delivers great
outcomes.”
India and EU agree landmark trade deal after two decades of talks
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
More on a problem that will only get
worse with each passing year.
Lancashire
Fire and Rescue's warning to e-bike users due to 'serious fire risk'
26 January 2026
A dangerous e-bike battery,
which has been linked to multiple fires, has been flagged as a "serious
fire risk" and the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service has reissued a
warning.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue
Service has reissued a public safety warning about the UPP Battery E-Bike
Battery Packs, which were withdrawn from sale in 2024 due to a "serious
risk of fire."
The batteries, models U004
and U004-1, are triangular lithium-ion packs sold through online platforms such
as Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba.
A spokesperson for Lancashire
Fire and Rescue Service said: "Following recent fires involving this
product, we’re reinforcing an important safety message.
"If you own an e-bike or
e-scooter, please check your battery today.
"Certain Unit Power Pack
(UPP) Battery e-bike batteries were withdrawn in 2024 due to a serious fire
risk, yet incidents are still occurring."
The batteries pose a risk of
thermal runaway, a failure that can cause them to catch fire.
Owners have been told to stop
using the batteries immediately and dispose of them at a household waste site.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue
Service said: "Check for :- Models U004 / U004-1- Triangular lithium-ion
battery packs- Sold via Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and similar platformsIf you have
one:- Stop using it immediately- Dispose of it safely at a household waste
site.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue's warning to e-bike
users due to 'serious fire risk'
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
28 January 1871 North German Confederation, led by Prussian King Wilhelm I, captures Paris after the city surrenders, ending a four-month siege.
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