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Gold surrenders 2026 gains as war-driven inflation sparks rate hike fears; silver plunges 11%. (00:14) Musk plans Austin chip factory for AI push. (01:07) Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) to buy stake in Tokio Marine in $1.8B deal. (01:58)
This is an abridged transcript.
Gold’s status as a sanctuary asset continues to crumble. As of the time of this recording, spot gold (XAUUSD:CUR) is trading around $4,250. Silver (XAGUSD:CUR) Platinum (XPTUSD:CUR) and palladium (XPDUSD:CUR) are all down at least 4%.
Gold (XAUUSD:CUR) was expected to rally amid war and inflation fears, but instead it has dropped sharply, falling about 14% since the start of the Iran conflict. According to The Wall Street Journal’s “Streetwise” column, the decline has surprised investors who typically view the metal as a safe haven in times of geopolitical stress.
Despite the escalating war in the Middle East, investors are fleeing bullion as skyrocketing oil prices stoke inflation fears and cement expectations for aggressive interest rate hikes.
Gold ended last year at $4,319.37 an ounce and spiked to an all-time high above $5,595 an ounce in late January.
According to market participants, rather than buying the dip, traders are pricing in a “higher-for-longer” rate environment to combat energy-led inflation.
Elon Musk has unveiled plans for a new semiconductor venture. It’s called “Terafab.” It’ll be built in Austin and operated jointly by Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPACE).
The project would begin with a smaller advanced fabrication facility capable of designing and testing a wide range of chips, with ambitions to scale into a much larger operation.
The proposed fab would produce two main types of chips: lower-power processors for vehicles, robotaxis and humanoid robots, and higher-performance chips designed for space-based computing.
The Austin location would sit near Tesla’s existing operations and could further position Texas as a growing hub for chip manufacturing. Tesla currently relies on suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) (TSMWF) and Samsung (SSNLF), but Musk has signaled a desire to reduce that dependence, according to media reports.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) plans to invest JPY 287.4B (about $1.8B) in Japanese insurance firm Tokio Marine Holdings, further expanding its exposure to Japan.
The investment will be made through Berkshire’s reinsurance unit, National Indemnity Company, which will initially acquire a roughly 2.5% stake in the insurer. The initial shares will be allocated through the disposition of treasury stock held by Tokio Marine.
Following the allocation of such treasury stock, any additional acquisitions of Tokio Marine shares by National Indemnity are expected to be made primarily through open-market purchases.
The two companies also plan to collaborate on reinsurance as well as potential acquisitions, according to a statement released Monday. The Japanese insurer added that National Indemnity wouldn’t acquire more than 9.9% of the company without prior approval from the Tokio Marine board.
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Catalyst watch:
Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the red. Crude oil is up 0.5% at $98. Bitcoin is up 0.5% at $68,000.
The FTSE 100 is down 1.9% and the DAX is down 1.9%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Synopsys (SNPS) +4% – Shares rose after activist investor Elliott Investment Management disclosed a multibillion-dollar stake and signaled plans to push for operational and financial improvements.
Economic calendar:
