Daily Dispatch: Markets mixed as precious metal prices decline
Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Market Summary
A drop in precious metals and Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, seemed to have little impact on traders in the latest session.
US markets rose on Monday, led by gains in data centre company Oracle.
The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.7%, and the Dow Jones rose 1%.
In Europe, stocks edged up, with major bourses able to reverse losses. The pan-European Stoxx 600 ending its latest trading session up 1%.
A collapse in precious metals spilled over into markets in Asia on Monday.
Silver fell as much as 14.2% to US$72.63 and gold 7.5% to US$4499.34, sending most major markets in the region into negative terrain.
Back here, the S&P/NZX50 slipped back 0.08% following international markets nervous about a slump in precious metals and bitcoin.
But business news in the day included an update from Manuka Resources, which said it expected a fast-track consenting decision for a Taranaki project with a forecast of about $854m in export revenue. Despite favourable forecasts, the stock dropped 8.7% on the market’s general weakness.
Depressed sentiment also impacted the share price of apparel retailer KMD Brands. The company’s shares dipped 3.64% despite a five month performance update showing an almost 8% increase in sales over the period, and forecast first half pre-tax earnings $8m-$11m compared with almost $4m in the earlier comparative period.
Freightways said it had completed the purchase of Australian firm VT Freight Express,first announced last year. The news sent its share price falling 0.97%.
Decliners on the main board were led by the global route in crypto and metals. Smart Gold ETFs and Smart Bitcoin ETFs dropped 9.74% and 9.24% respectively. Minerals Exploration fell 5.45%.
Gainers were mainly small cap companies showing modest gains. Blis Technologies rose 6.25%, Black Pearl Group gained 4.50%, CDL Investments, which appears to be trying to acquire 100% of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, advanced 2.63%, PaySauce slipped up 1.92% and Synlait Milk was up 1.59%.
Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 also closed lower, down 1.02% and crossing below its 125-day moving average. The bottom performing stocks included Graincorp, which warned a supply glut would impact earnings, sending its shares down 14.03%. Newmont Corporation, the world’s largest gold miner, saw its shares fall 10% after gold’s tumble.
While we slept
US President Donald Trump says India and the US have reached a trade deal and he will lower tariffs immediately. Taking to Truth Social, Trump announced the news, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had committed to “stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela”. He said Modi had also agreed to buy American products “at a much higher level” as part of the agreement, in addition to over US$500 billion of US energy, technology, agricultural, and coal products.
Nvidia shares declined on Monday following a report that delved into an investment deal with OpenAI stalled. The AI chip giant announced plans in September to invest up to $100 billion into the AI startup. However, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang recently criticized OpenAI’s business strategy, and shared concern about competition from firms like Google and Anthropic. Despite this, Huang told press the deal would continue.
What's up today
In today’s The Post, Dita De Boni writes there are hopes that direct flights between New Zealand and Vietnam could be reborn as part of efforts to turbo-charge the trading relationship, Tom Pullar-Strecker writes AI is ‘widespread’ in newsrooms, and offers insight into how he uses it in his work and Miriam Bell reports 3000 businesses were liquidated last year - the highest number in 16 years, according to the latest Centrix data.
Stats NZ building consents data for December is due to be released today.