The April gold futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange set a new record of $2,853.20 during trading on 30 January and closed the day at $2,845.20.
Tag: interest rates
FED STANDS PAT ON INTEREST RATES
At its meeting last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee decided to hold its interest rates at their current levels amid a strong economy and labor market and inflation that refuses to surrender to the bank’s 2-percent target rate.
GERMAN, U.K. ECONOMIES SHOW NEW DANGER SIGNS
From 1 September through November, the U.K.’s jobless rate edged up from 4.3 percent to 4.4 percent, its highest since 2021, the Office of National Statistics reported.
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS TRENDS
The economic landscape has presented an array of challenges that will profoundly affect the business community this year.
RECORD NUMBER OF CONSUMERS MAKING ONLY MINIMUM CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS
The proportion of credit card holders making only minimum payments rose to 10.75 percent in last year’s third quarter, the most since 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported.
MORTGAGE RATES RISE TO HIGHEST IN SIX MONTHS
After falling to 6.2 percent in September, the average national interest rate on a fixed-rate, 30-year mortgage climbed back to 6.93 percent last week, its highest since July, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. reported.
U.S. JOBS IN DECEMBER UP, TYPES OF JOBS LOW
Last month, the U.S. economy created an estimated 256,000 nonfarm jobs, the most since March 2024 and far more than the 120,000 to 200,000 that analysts had predicted. Unemployment ticked down from 4.2 percent to 4.1 percent.
CORPORATE BANKRUPTCIES SHOOT TO 14-YEAR HIGH
In 2024, at least 686 U.S. corporations filed bankruptcy, 8 percent more than in 2023 and the most since 2010 during the Great Recession when 828 corporations went bust, S&P Global Intelligence reported.
DELINQUENT CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS ARE ON THE RISE
Late-paying credit card accounts in the U.S. are more numerous than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Times reported, as low-income households have run out of financial reserves after more than two years of relentless inflation.
DOLLAR INDEX REACHES TWO-YEAR HIGH AHEAD OF TRUMP INAUGURATION
On 2 January, the U.S. dollar index rose 0.8 percent in intraday trading against an assortment of other currencies, reaching its highest mark since November 2022.









