FRANKFURT – Euro area central bankers are widely expected to hold interest rates at current levels Thursday as officials continue to feel at home in the public lender’s “good place”.

Analysts said the European Central Bank looks unlikely to make any moves anytime soon, or this year for that matter, with the wide majority of economists suggesting the first shift in interest rates will come in 2027.

Inflation continues to abate, with the annual headline rate dropping to 1.7% last month, according to preliminary data from the EU statistics office. This was the lowest mark since September 2024, pushing it well below the ECB target of 2% over the medium term. More importantly, the core rate (likely what the ECB is really watching) dropped unexpectedly to 2.2% last month, its weakest since October 2021. These declines could revive talks of rate reductions, some observers noted.

(Continue Reading – LS)

The Bank of England left its key interest rate unchanged Thursday despite lowering its forecasts for growth and inflation, but indicated that it will cut again if there are signs that wage rises are slowing to a pace that would help cool prices.

The U.K.’s central bank left its key rate at 3.75%, matching the Federal Reserve’s most recent decision, having cut borrowing costs in December for the sixth time since August 2024.

(Continue Reading – WSJ)

A billionaire Chinese trader who made his name riding gold’s record-breaking rally has turned his sights to silver’s breakneck surge, with a bet on the metal’s collapse now worth almost $300 million.

Bian Ximing, who avoids the limelight and spends much of his time in Gibraltar, has made nearly $3 billion from bullish bets on Shanghai Futures Exchange gold contracts since early 2022. He has now built the bourse’s largest net short position in silver, according to Bloomberg analysis of exchange data and people with knowledge of his investments. They asked not to be named as the information is not public.

(Continue Reading – BBG)

The Australian dollar’s outlook is increasingly at risk as a slide in precious metals works against optimism driven by expectations for higher interest rates.

The currency’s pullback from an almost three-year high set last week is casting doubts about whether hedge funds may be wrongly positioned with their bullish bets at the highest levels since December 2017. That stance looked sound enough last month when the Aussie jumped 4.4% amid forecasts for Reserve Bank of Australia tightening and runaway gains in gold and silver.

(Continue Reading – BBG)