Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving.
Gold pushed to its highest level in over three months on Monday, with two clear drivers behind the move. A softer dollar gave bullion room to run, and the Treasury's announcement of a bond buyback program added a layer of support, reinforcing the view that monetary conditions could ease further down the road.
Crude oil told a very different story. West Texas Intermediate settled down more than two percent, with RBOB gasoline falling a similar amount. The catalyst was confirmation that oil supplies are flowing freely through the Strait of Hormuz, easing the geopolitical premium that had been quietly embedded in energy prices over recent sessions.
And on the macro policy front, a MarketWatch analysis is drawing attention to an underappreciated consequence of Trump's trade war with Canada — the possibility that sustained tariff pressure could eventually push the Federal Reserve back toward quantitative easing. If that scenario unfolds, the beneficiaries would be gold, equities, and long-duration bonds, though analysts stress the timeline remains uncertain and the path nonlinear.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
