Gold and Silver prices performed moderately with Gold up 1.25% in the past 5 days at $6584CAD and down 6.5% month over month. Silver is down 9% this month and up 2.75% from the last 5 days now $104.02CAD. Silver is still up 150% Year over Year. US Dollar index DXY is down 1.25% this week at 98.82 and down 4% YOY. SP500 Volatility Index VIX fell 27%. SP 500 ES futures rose 3.6% and are now trading 6863 having failed to trade above 7000 for the 8th consecutive week this year. The Dow Jones 30 is below 50,000.
Oil had a volatile week. On Sunday , President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social “Allahu Akbar, America!! Tuesday I will be vaporizing an entire nation of Animals…” The President had not backed down by Tuesday, saying “ A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Oil was not initially strongly affected by the statements though it did trade as high as $117.63 on Tuesday morning. Trump announced a 2 week ceasefire that evening, prompting Iran to release Ai generated propaganda referencing the TACO acronym Trump Always Chickens Out in a “Taco Tuesday” themed music video. Near term WTI futures sank to a low of $91.05 within hours of the ceasefire announcement during overnight trading. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Iran had re-closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Crude WTI futures are down 1% at $97.87 and now up 60% YOY. On March 2, 2026, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officially declared the strait closed. The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, facilitating the transit of approximately 20% of global oil consumption.
NYMEX NG natural gas futures which spiked over 100% above $7 in January are now trading $2.67 USD per Million BTU.
Crypto is strong , having rallied back with BTC up 8% this week to $72,400 and ETH up 8% at $2214. The crypto crash originally started on Oct. 10 when Trump threatened to impose an extra 100% tariff on Chinese imports
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Ai powered Government Contractor Palantir is down 11% - PLTR currently trades at $130.53, and up 94% YOY after falling from a 52 week high of 207.52. NVDA is up 4.5% in the past 5 days at $183.93 despite trading up to $197.62 following their announcement of record quarterly revenue and record full year revenue up 65%.
S&P AeroSpace and Defense ETF XAR rose 5.5% in the past 5 days to $269.14 after making a new All Time High of 295.23 following the assasination of the Iranian Supreme Leader. XAR is up 60% in the past 12 months.
Weekly Jobless Claims were up 16,000 at 219,000 for the week ending March 14th.
The Gold/Silver ratio fell 1.5% now at 63.21 up from a low this year of 43.52 after falling steadily since late October and from its March high of 107. Longer 20 yr and 30 yr US government bonds yield fell to 4.87 and 4.89% respectively.
In the response to Iranian war fuelled inflation risk the likelihood of any interest rate cuts are mixed but low. The Polymarket quoted probability of a total 0 bps in cuts fell to 34.2%, where 75 bps in cuts in 2026 stands at 13%, the probability of 50 bps is 21% and the probability of 25 bps is 25%. Short term rates are down in the 2yr at 3.77.
US Comex Copper Futures HG, a leading indicator of economic growth, rose 2.25% to $5.76 usd/lb after hitting a new all time high in January of $6.58 usd/lb.