There was a risk-on mentality on the global markets at the beginning of the new year, as demonstrated by soaring equities futures and record leaps in Asian stocks. Investors are negotiating a terrain that is characterized by optimism, but they are also exercising prudence with regard to the consequences of the first trading day.
The Dow futures market started the year 2026 with a strong performance, with Nasdaq 100 Futures seeing a 1% gain and reaching session high, and S&P 500 Futures seeing an increase of roughly 0.5%. Futures contracts on the Dow Jones index saw a rise of around 0.3% throughout the trading session. Regarding the analysis of the first trading day of the year, the strategist at Deutsche Bank, Jim Reid, cautioned against making any assumptions. He pointed out that recent patterns show that there is a small link between the performance on day one and the overall results for the year. During the years 2023 through 2025, the S&P 500 began the year with losses, but it went on to achieve double-digit gains. On the other hand, 2022 started the year at a record high and ended up being the worst year since 2008.
After resuming trading on Friday, Asian markets started the year 2026 with a strong performance. The KOSPI in South Korea had a significant gain of 2.3%, which resulted in the achievement of a new record closing. On the other hand, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong saw a significant increase of 2.8%. As a result of comments made by Vice Chairman Jun Young-hyun, Samsung Electronics displayed exceptional performance. He stated that the business had regained its technological advantage in memory chips, which was reinforced by good feedback from customers on its sixth-generation HBM4 products.
The FTSE 100 in Britain has, for the very first time, broken the crucial threshold of 10,000 points. This accomplishment is a result of the momentum that was produced by a particularly strong performance in 2025. As of nine o’clock in the morning, the index had reached 10,038 points, representing a 1.1% rise thus far. An gain of 0.6% was seen in the STOXX 600 index in Europe. This increase was mostly driven by mining equities, which profited from a comeback in precious metals following a recent drop.
An increase in the prices of gold and silver occurred, recouping a portion of the decreases that were seen at the close of the previous week. During the middle of the morning in Europe, gold futures had gained by 1.4%, while silver futures had increased by as high as 4.8%. This was due to investors reevaluating the sector after it saw a record rally in 2025.
The United States Dollar Index Futures had a 0.1% rise, which is indication that the currency markets shown some degree of stability. With a 0.4% increase in value, the Australian dollar displayed its strength in comparison to the United States dollar. Bitcoin witnessed a surge of 1.5% in the cryptocurrency markets as it reached the $90,000 barrier, while the exchange rate between ETH and USD experienced a climb of 1.7%.