Cryptos and Metals are bullies – Market wrap for the North American session - October 6

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Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for October 6th

The week opens on the typical 2025 trade: Metals, propelled by Gold (1.90%) and Palladium (4.50%!), Cryptocurrencies, and Tech rage higher.

What is unusual is that the US Dollar also had a very decent session, which does not corroborate with the overall currency-debasing theme and the usual market correlation: It’s not the first time we've seen this in the past few weeks, and it could become an interesting trade.

Energy commodities have actually also seen a decent session with most of the highly traded names up between 0.70% for Ethanol to 2.20% for Gasoline futures.

So, which asset is giving up its share if it's not the US Dollar or commodities? In these scenarios, players must turn to other markets, particularly FX.

The suspect is in one of the currency majors, particularly in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The Yen had a rough opening this week, as the most recent LDP elections in Japan put Sanae Takaichi in the direction. This was a dovish surprise after hanging very close with Kuzoimi in election polls, a candidate who would have been more favorable for the Japanese currency.

Takaichi is effectively very close to Abenomics policy, which aims to provide consistent stimulus and easy fiscal conditions to keep boosting the Nippon economy. This may add barriers to the change of direction the Bank of Japan was taking.

(This piece on the Yen is a lovely read if you want to know more.)

Read More:

• Gold (XAU/USD) set to challenge $4,000 as prices renew all-time highs in today’s session - Potential targets and price forecast
• US tech runs higher to start the week, but other sectors diverge – US outlook
• Bitcoin breaks above $125,000 as shutdown fears brings Crypto safe-haven demand

Cross-Assets Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, October 6, 2025 – Source: TradingView

We discussed the strong performance in metals today but we didn't give many details:

Silver hit some new highs and came $1 close to its ATH ($49.81) at its session peak, while Gold casually broke the $3,900 level in a huge weekly open, marking daily highs at $3,970 and looking like the $4,000 is approaching very fast.

In digital assets, cryptos really surprised higher with the strong flows coming into the market with attempts to diversify from the US-centric assets amid the ongoing government shutdown adding to the market uncertainty.

EU Stocks were largely the losers of this session, and the same for bonds which have been struggling to find traction with the political uncertainty (same for European bonds).

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, October 6 – Source: OANDA Labs

Once again, Yen bulls couldn't hold the huge wave of dovish repricing as Takaichi won the elections and stands as the big outstander in FX majors.

The weakness led to some huge reversals of the past two weeks of trading flows (largely invalidating one of the pieces published last week on Yen strength): Political risk is (almost) always the biggest risk for currencies and their attractiveness.

Elsewhere, Antipodean strength continues to roar back with the Chinese stimulus starting what resembles a new trend but will also have to be confirmed.

Watch the USD and particularly the CAD tomorrow as Canadian PM Mark Carney visits President Trump to discuss trade and other issues, a major event for Loonie traders.

A look at Economic data releasing through tonight and tomorrow's sessions

For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar.

This evening session's tone remains light with a few, non-market moving events.

NZD traders should still pay attention to the Consumer Confidence surveys releasing in the evening (Particularly the NZIER releasing very soon.)

In Tuesday's session, Europe opens with German Factory Orders (02:00 ET) and multiple ECB speeches from Nagel and Lagarde.

The ECB president was still adamant on maintaining the current stance (pause) with inflation solid around 2%, a positive for the Euro overall, but priced into the market already.

In North America, a busy Fed lineup dominates Tuesday: Bostic, Bowman, Kashkari, and Miran all speak through the session — investors will watch for any clues on rate path convergence after mixed US data last week.

Later in Asia, Japan releases Labour Cash Earnings and Current Account, followed by BoJ Governor Ueda’s speech (21:45 ET) — his first remarks post-LDP leadership vote, expected to draw extra attention from JPY traders.

Tomorrow's evening session will also be a big focus for NZD traders, attention shifts to the RBNZ, which takes centre stage late Tuesday (21:00 ET). A pause is fully expected, but markets are already pricing roughly 25–30 bps of cuts over the next two meetings, making the policy statement and tone crucial for NZD direction.

Safe Trades!

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