Gold and cybersecurity stocks hit record highs [Video]

The European Central Bank (ECB) cut the interest rates yesterday for the fifth time and voiced concerns about euro area growth and tariff threats.Trump renewed his pledge to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, sending the currencies of both countries lower against the US dollar.

Gold hit a fresh ATH yesterday, backed by a swift move to safety due to the Trump's tariff threats, the rising geopolitical tensions, the rising US government debt and the fear of a potential tech rout that could lead to a global risk selloff.

In the tech space, five days into the DeepSeek drama, and ‘hundreds of companies’ – especially those linked to governments – are already limiting access to DeepSeek’s search engine highlighting data security concerns for using a Chinese chat bot that could collect and give information to Chinese authorities. Chip and digital information war between China and the West is entering a new phase and cybersecurity firms will likely see the benefits of it. Crowdstrike, Fortinet and Cloudfare hit fresh ATH levels this week and have potential to attract more capital.

Elsewhere, Meta extended gains to a fresh ATH as well following the announcement of stronger-than-expected earnings on Wednesday, while Apple gained 3% in the afterhours trading after releasing better-than-expected Q4 results and a record high Q4 revenue despite a massive hit from Chinese revenue.