Daily summary: gold nears record highs 📌

Wall Street indices are trading higher today. The Nasdaq is up 0.2%, the S&P 500 has added over 0.13%, and the Russell 2000 benchmark has gained over 0.58%.

In Europe, the best-performing market was Poland's WIG20, which gained over 1.05%. The German DAX increased by just 0.21%.

Yields on U.S. 10-year bonds fell below the 3.8% barrier. These levels have not been seen since July of this year.

Falls in yields and slightly worse Richmond data triggered a broad market sell-off of the U.S. dollar. Currently, in the FX market, the Swiss franc USDCHF pair loses 1.21% and the euro EURUSD pair gains 0.6% are performing the best.

Fitch Ratings predicts that elevated interest expenses will continue to pose a challenge for highly leveraged speculative-grade companies in the U.S. and Europe, leading to increased default rates for high-yield bonds and leveraged loans in 2024.

As announced by the Turkish Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Mr. Vedat Işıkhan, Turkey will raise the minimum monthly wage by 49% to 17,002 Turkish lira.

U.S. natural gas prices (NATGAS) gained over 3% today. New weather forecasts suggest that the period of above-average temperatures in the United States may be coming to an end. However, with the start of the session on Wall Street, the scale of these increases began to decrease. Currently, the commodity is gaining 1.05%. Meanwhile, crude oil is losing over 1.5% (both BRENT and WTI).

Ethereum gained 5.70% to $2360, approaching this year's highs around $2400. Currently, the price of Ethereum is already above the highest daily close of the year.

At the moment, gold is gaining over 0.5% and is trading above the highest historical closing levels. If the bulls manage to maintain the gains, GOLD may record these increases above this barrier. However, the highest recorded levels were in the zone of $2143 per ounce.