New highs for gold, silver and oil rises as US forces pursue sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean

Gold and silver both touched record highs and oil prices jumped after a government official confirmed that U.S. Coast Guard was pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean.

Uber and Lyft each rose about 1.4% after the ride hailing apps announced plans to bring robotaxi services to London next year in separate partnerships with Chinese tech giant Baidu. Testing is expected to start in the first half of 2026, the two companies said.

In what's expected to be a light week of developments on the corporate front during the Christmas holiday, the focus will shift to several economic reports this week. On Tuesday, the government releases the first of three estimates on gross domestic product, a reflection of how the broader U.S. economy fared in the third quarter. On Wednesday, the Labor Department will release its weekly data on applications for jobless benefits, which stands as a proxy for U.S. layoffs.

The Conference Board offers up results from its December consumer confidence survey on Tuesday as well.

American confidence in the economy has been weakening throughout the year as persistent inflation squeezes consumers. The job market is also slowing and retail sales have weakened.

Businesses and consumers are also worrying about the continued impact of a wide-ranging U.S.-led trade war that has targeted key partners.

The Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark interest rate at its last three meeting, despite inflation that has remained stubbornly above its 2% target. Fed officials have grown increasingly concerned about the slowing job market, pushing them to trim rates. The danger in cutting interest rates is that it can add more fuel to inflation, which can stunt economic growth.

The Fed has maintained a cautious stance about interest rate policy heading into 2026 and Wall Street is mostly betting that it will hold steady on rates at its next meeting in January.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany's DAX was unchanged, while the CAC 40 in Paris and Britain's FTSE 100 each shed 0.4%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.8% to 50,402.39, helped by hefty gains for computer chip makers and other companies benefiting from the boom for artificial intelligence.

Semiconductor maker Tokyo Electron jumped 6.3% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gained 4.5%.

Financial companies and exporters also saw gains after the Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate on Friday to its highest level in 30 years. Instead of causing the Japanese yen to strengthen as might be expected, it has fallen.

Early Monday, the dollar bought 157.31 yen, down from 157.60 late Friday. Heavy selling of the yen for dollars caused a top Finance Ministry official in charge of foreign exchange issues, Atsushi Mimura, to warn that regulators would act to curb any excessive fluctuations in the currency.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng picked up 0.4% to 25,901.77. The Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.7% to 3,917.36.

China's central bank left its 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates unchanged, as expected.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi added 2.1% to 4,105.93 and Taiwan's Taiex was 1.6% higher, helped by a 2.5% gain for chip maker TSMC.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.9% to 8,699.90.

“Asian equity markets are stepping onto the floor with a constructive bias, taking their cue from Friday’s solid rebound in U.S. stocks and the growing belief that the final stretch of the year still belongs to the bulls,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $1.17 to $57.69 per barrel after the Trump administration announced Saturday it had seized a Venezuela-linked tanker for the second time in less than two weeks and was pursuing another.

The official said Sunday’s pursuit involved “a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.”

Brent crude, the international standard, was up $1.23 at $61.70 per barrel.

Gold rose another 1.3% to $4,443.10 per ounce, while silver climbed more than 2% to $68.90 per ounce, eclipsing its previous high.