Global bond yields continue to rise. Yields on Bloomberg’s global 10+ year bond index have returned to 16-year highs (3.91%) as traders price-in the end of the global rate cutting cycle (after 315+ global rate cuts past 2 yrs.).
Long-term silver technicians (Michel Oliver, Kiril Sokoloff) are calling silver’s breakout from its 45-year cup-and-handle pattern a truly historic technical event projecting “measured targets” as high as $600/oz. Spot silver surged 4.3% on Tuesday (to $60.67) and touched $61.61 in early Wednesday trading. Stay tuned!
Glencore became the first miner to ship cobalt from the DRC following a 10-month export ban and imposition of new code including a 10% royalty. Congo (70% of global cobalt production) allocated total cobalt export quotas of 18,125t in Q4 ’25 and 96,600t in ’26. The two largest Q4 allocations were Glencore (3,925t) and China’s CMOC (6,650t). Congo produces 70% of global 280kt annual total, and cobalt prices have risen 142% since Congo’s Feb. ’25 export ban (from $21,400/t to $51,800/t).
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced EU approval of $16.5B of state aid for construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant on the Baltic Sea coast. Total costs of building three reactors at the site are estimated at $53B, with construction of first reactor to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2036.
Separately, the EU agreed on Wednesday to set a legally binding climate target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels by 2040 (and buy foreign carbon credits to cover 5% of emission cuts). BP World Energy Statistics suggests total ‘24 EU emissions were down 35% from ‘90 levels, implying emissions would need to fall 77% from ’24 levels to reach the 85% blended target reduction.
The Institute of International Finance estimates total world debt reached $345.7T in Sept. ’25, equivalent to 310% of world GDP.
European bonds ticking lower by 2bps-4bps across the board. 10-year Treasury yield +1.2bps (4.200%). DXY dollar index -0.1%, spot gold -0.25% and spot silver +0.6% (gold silver ratio @ 68.8).
