On Monday (December 29, 2025), Asian Stocks increased for 6 weeks, fueled by anticipation of declines in the U.S Federal Reserve’s (Fed) interest rate in the upcoming year, which led to an uplift in precious metals.
Before sharp declines, silver rose $80 per ounce while gold encountered a 1% drop, but continued to reach an all-time high, hovering above $4000 per ounce, because of rate cut speculation, dollar weakness, and safe-haven demand.
Year-End Market Performance
In the last week, after encountering a record peak of $4530.60, the Spot gold increased about 0.58% to $4501.44 per ounce by 0209 GMT. Similarly, after hitting an all-time high, palladium and platinum encountered a sharp dip.
According to Charu Chanana, the chief investment strategist at Saxo, in the current year, the precious metals like Gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and so on have surged due to the powerful assimilation of hedging against fiscal and geopolitical uncertainty, and also the rate-cut tailwinds.
Charu Chanana added, the precious metal’s long-term outlook is very positive, fueled by a mix of ongoing diversification demand, geopolitical, and favourable macroeconomic factors. However, any dip in price should be examined as a purchasing opportunity for investors concentrated on long-term development.
According to the Broadest Index of MSCI’s Asia-Pacific shares about 0.27%, reflecting an efficient end to the year, and in 2025, the index acquired over 25%. These are highly supported by the enthusiasm of AI-driven investors and technology stocks.
Christmas week trading has thin liquidity, so the majority of nations, including a huge part of Europe, Australia and Hong Kong, are out for the holidays. Hence, investors depend on the open markets in other nations such as China, Japan, and South Korea to continue the tone.
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) increased by about 1.5% within a single day, reaching its highest point in 2 months, posting a 74% extraordinary gain, as it is an unusually high and instant rate of growth, mainly since the strongest yearly performance in 1999.
Upcoming U.S Fed Policy Clues
In the late December trade, the Topix of Japan touched a record high, which increased by about 0.5%. Nikkei, a financial index of Japan, dropped 0.4% to 50,526.92, and the stock of Taiwan rose 0.3% to a record high, fueled by the anticipation of a rally in precious metals and the Federal Reserve at a 6-week high.
By the end of December 2025, the CSI 300 blue chip index of China has documented an annual gain of 17.3% to 18%, marking the index’s highest annual growth since 2020. Further, Shanghai Composite, a key stock market index, increased about 0.5% to 3959.62, especially in holiday-thinned trade.
According to an IG market analyst, Tony Sycamore, Investors and traders will deeply examine the meticulous record of a significant meeting to identify clues regarding the upcoming economic policy.
Currently, the main focus of the stock market is on the release of the December meeting minutes of the U.S Federal Reserve on Tuesday. This will offer comprehensive insight into the views of the committee on upcoming rate cuts, underscored by the important labor market information in early 2026, involving non-farm payrolls.
