Window Dressing Can Shock the Market
Entering the final week of 2025, financial markets tend to be quiet due to holidays, but that's precisely what can cause sudden, "sharp" price movements. Investors are starting to buzz about window dressing opportunities—a moment when some major players tidy up their portfolios ahead of the closing of the books, so the market direction looks more "beautiful" at the end of the year.
In the stock market, sentiment remains strong. Many indexes remain near record levels, and this often serves as a "stage" for window dressing because stock transactions more easily boost portfolio performance. Reuters reports that a global stock rally and appetite for riskier assets remain strong amid expectations that US interest rates could fall again in 2026.
For gold, the year-end effect is usually seen in profit-taking after record-setting events. On Monday, December 29, 2025, spot gold fell 0.4% to $4,512.30/ounce after hitting a record $4,549.71 on Friday. Even so, gold has risen 72% throughout 2025, so a slight correction is still considered a breather after a long rally.
Silver is most vulnerable to a whipsaw. It briefly broke through $80/ounce and even hit an all-time intraday high before falling more than 2% in the same session. Reuters noted that silver briefly reached $83.62 and then settled around $79.68/ounce. This extreme surge has led analysts to call the silver market a "generational bubble," driven by industrial demand and dwindling inventories.
Meanwhile, oil is driven more by geopolitical factors than window dressing. Prices remain sensitive to headlines about the Middle East, Russia-Ukraine, and US-Venezuela tensions, which could potentially disrupt supply flows. At the start of the week, Brent traded around $61 and WTI around $57, with geopolitical risks acting as a short-term driver.
So, how significant is the impact? In thin year-end trading, gold tends to see a slight correction and then stabilize, silver has the potential to fluctuate, and oil moves according to supply/geopolitical news. The market is now awaiting new clues from the FOMC minutes and subsequent economic data, as the direction of interest rates in 2026 remains the primary compass for gold and silver, while oil remains most responsive to developments in conflict and sanctions. (asd)
Source: Newsmaker.id
