Markets Today: FTSE 100 Breaches 10,000 Mark, Gold Rises 1.8% as UK House Prices Drop to 20-Month Lows

[Ben Graham]

Global Equity Funds Saw Strong Flows in Final Week of 2025

Global stock funds attracted $26.54 billion in new investments this week, continuing a strong buying trend following a massive $37 billion inflow the previous week.

This enthusiasm comes after the global market gained nearly 21% in 2025, its best performance since 2019.

American stock funds led the way, taking in roughly $17 billion, while European and Asian funds also saw healthy gains of $5.75 billion and $2.67 billion, respectively.

When picking specific industries, investors favored finance, real estate, and industrial companies, but they continued to pull money out of the healthcare sector, which lost $510 million.

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Source: LSEG

Asia Market Wrap - Samsung Hits New Record High

Stock markets kicked off the new year the same way they ended 2025, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer chip companies leading the charge.

Asian markets rose by 0.9% overall, with the technology sector reaching a new all-time high. Major success stories included Samsung, which hit a record share price, and Baidu, which jumped 7.5% after announcing plans to list its chip business on the stock market.

Meanwhile, AI chip designer Shanghai Biren saw its value quadruple on its first day of trading. South Korea’s market, last year’s top performer, climbed another 2.3% to a record high, powered by huge gains in Samsung and SK Hynix.

Similarly, Taiwan’s market reached a new peak, continuing the strong tech-driven rally that saw it gain 27% last year.

The MSCI index of emerging Asian equities jumped as much as 2% to its highest point since late October.

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Stock markets kicked off the new year the same way they ended 2025, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer chip companies leading the charge.

Asian markets rose by 0.9% overall, with the technology sector reaching a new all-time high. Major success stories included Samsung, which hit a record share price, and Baidu, which jumped 7.5% after announcing plans to list its chip business on the stock market.

Meanwhile, AI chip designer Shanghai Biren saw its value quadruple on its first day of trading. South Korea’s market, last year’s top performer, climbed another 2.3% to a record high, powered by huge gains in Samsung and SK Hynix.

Similarly, Taiwan’s market reached a new peak, continuing the strong tech-driven rally that saw it gain 27% last year.

The MSCI index of emerging Asian equities jumped as much as 2% to its highest point since late October.

UK House Prices at 20-Month Lows

UK house price growth slowed significantly in December, rising just 0.6% compared to a year ago, the weakest annual increase since April 2024 and well below what experts predicted.

MoM, prices unexpectedly fell by 0.4%, marking the first drop in four months. Nationwide's Chief Economist explained that this slowdown is partly due to comparisons with strong price gains from the previous year.

However, he noted that the housing market remains stable, with mortgage approvals sitting at pre-pandemic levels. He also highlighted that homes are becoming more affordable as wages rise faster than property prices and mortgage rates continue to fall.

Looking ahead, house prices are expected to recover slightly, with growth forecast between 2% and 4% in 2026.

European Session - FTSE 100 Hits 10000 for the First Time

London's main stock index, the FTSE 100, hit a historic milestone on Friday by crossing the 10,000-point mark for the first time.

This achievement follows a strong performance in 2025, where the index rose nearly 22%, its best year since 2009 beating major markets in Europe and the US.

While global markets have been largely driven by excitement over Artificial Intelligence, the UK's rally was powered by different sectors: mining companies benefited from high metal prices, defense firms grew due to increased military spending, and banks profited from high interest rates.

The large international companies in the FTSE 100 significantly outperformed smaller, domestic UK businesses.

Although the UK index still grew slower than markets in Japan and Italy, reaching this new record offers hope for renewed investor confidence after years of uncertainty surrounding Brexit and political instability.

On the FX front, the US dollar started 2026 with a small recovery, rising 0.2% on Friday after suffering its worst year in nearly a decade with a 9.4% drop in 2025. While the dollar stabilized, the Euro dipped slightly and the British Pound remained near its recent highs; both European currencies had surged last year, recording their strongest annual gains since 2017.

In the Pacific, the Australian and New Zealand dollars continued their winning streaks, starting the new year with further gains after strong performances in 2025.

Overall trading was quiet because markets in Japan and China were closed, but investors are watching closely for upcoming US economic data to help predict future interest rate changes.

Currency Power Balance

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Source: OANDA Labs

Precious metals started the New Year with a strong rally on Friday, continuing the massive success they saw in 2025. Market participants are buying these "safe-haven" assets because of ongoing political conflicts and the expectation that interest rates will fall later this year.

Gold prices rose 1.4% to around $4,372 per ounce, bouncing back after a short dip earlier in the week.

Other metals saw even bigger gains. Silver jumped 3.6% to nearly $74 per ounce, following a historic year where it gained 147%, its best performance ever.

Platinum also rose 2.5%, recovering after hitting a record high earlier in the week; it more than doubled in value last year.

Palladium climbed 2.4%, building on a 76% gain in 2025, which was its best result in 15 years.

Oil prices rose slightly on the first trading day of 2026, recovering from their biggest annual drop since 2020. This small boost was driven by supply concerns after Ukrainian drones attacked Russian oil facilities and a US blockade restricted Venezuelan exports.

Despite these tensions, the market is coming off a difficult year where prices fell more than 15% due to global oversupply.

Specifically, Brent crude climbed 22 cents to $61.07 a barrel, while U.S. crude also increased by 22 cents to reach $57.64.

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Economic Calendar and Final Thoughts

The European session is quiet moving forward with a few medium impact data releases being released already in the morning.

In the US session market participants will get the US and Canadian manufacturing PMI data before attention turns to next week's US data releases which include the NFP jobs data release.

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For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar. (click to enlarge)

Chart of the Day - FTSE 100 Index

From a technical perspective, the FTSE 100 index has finally breached the psychological 10000 mark.

Price has pulled back since with bouts of volatility and that shouldn't be a surprise. When price breaches such psychological levels we do tend to see some volatile price swings.

Immediate support which may be tested in the near-term include the 9973 and 9943 handles respectively.

However, a key level on the four-hour chart for bullish continuation will be the swing low from December 30 which rests around the 9872 handle. If this handle holds, then fresh highs will likely materialize.

FTSE 100 Index Four-Hour Chart, January 2, 2026

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Source: TradingView.com (click to enlarge)

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