(Bloomberg) -- Gold rose to a record high above $3,017 an ounce as an escalation in Middle East tensions underscored its haven appeal, and investors weighed data that fueled concern the US economy is slowing down.

Bullion climbed 0.6% as Israel said it launched military strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, a move that threatens to undermine a shaky truce. Palestinian residents reported multiple airstrikes in several parts of the Gaza Strip.

Traders were also digesting US retail sales data released Monday, which rose less than forecast in February. While the figures pointed to weak spending on goods, there was no sign of a severe pullback and the data did little to alter traders’ bets on expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Still, companies, investors and economists remain cautious as consumer sentiment sours and signs of financial stress mount, amid risks of escalating trade wars sparked by US President Donald Trump.

The gloomier outlook for both the US and global economy has underscored bullion’s role as a store of value in uncertain times. The metal is up more than 14% so far this year, extending its strong annual advance in 2024. Several major banks have hoisted their price targets for this year higher in recent weeks.

While gold has further room to run, “$3,000 was a strong resistance” in the short term, said Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “Even though it’s broken marginally above this, it may not signal a decisive break,” said Menon, who sees bullion rising to $3,100 an ounce within twelve months.

Source: Yahoo Finance

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Another Wall Street strategist is lowering her year-end target on the S&P 500 (^GSPC), citing economic growth concerns.

Following the S&P 500's recent 10% drawdown, RBC Capital Markets head of US equity strategy Lori Calvasina lowered her year-end target to the S&P 500 to 6,200 from 6,600. Calvsina's revised outlook on the S&P 500 comes after both Goldman Sachs and Yardeni Research lowered their targets last week.

"While we don’t believe that a pullback beyond the 10% drawdown that has already been sustained is inevitable, we do believe that the path for stocks between now and December has gotten rockier with stronger headwinds," Calvasina wrote in a note to clients on Sunday night.

A gloomier outlook on US economic growth from the RBC Capital Markets economics team contributed to the more subdued S&P 500 projection. RBC's economic forecasters now project the economy to grow 1.6% this year, down from a prior estimate of 2%. Calvsina noted that the stock market has often fallen in years when GDP is in a "sluggish" range of 1.1%-2%.

"Some economic forecasters around the Street have started to dial down their 2025 GDP forecasts, but are not calling for a recession," Calvasina wrote. "Historically, the dialing down of economic growth on its own presents a significant headwind for the stock market to overcome."

Goldman Sachs chief US equity strategist David Kostin also highlighted a cut to GDP forecast from Goldman's economics team when moving his target to 6,200 from 6,500.

"Our revised estimates reflect the recently reduced GDP growth forecast of our US Economics team, a higher assumed tariff rate, and higher level of uncertainty that is typically associated with a greater equity risk premium," Kostin wrote.

With slower economic growth expected and several companies already trimming their first quarter forecasts, Calvasina now sees earnings per share for the S&P 500 ending 2025 at $264, lower than her team's prior projection of $271. Calvsina also projects a lower possible bear case, now seeing a potential scenario where the S&P ends 2025 at 5,550, down from a prior forecast of 5,775. The bear case would represent another 2% fall for the benchmark index from current levels.

For now, the new base case of 6,200 bakes in the idea that the S&P 500 has likely seen — or closed near —its lows for the year. But Calvasina's conviction on that call "isn't incredibly high."

Recent survey data, from both consumers and businesses, have deteriorated over the past several months as concerns over the impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies have weighed on the market mood. For now, there hasn't been much feed-through from those so-called soft data points to hard data like the monthly jobs report.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Oil’s recent descent has prompted Goldman Sachs analysts to lower their price target for the year, in part due to expectations of softer economic growth amid President Donald Trump's tariff policies.

The firm reduced its December 2025 forecast for Brent by $5 (BZ=F) to $71 per barrel.

Brent prices have fallen more than 3% year-to-date. Initiatives by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and efforts for a potential nuclear agreement with Iran have eased supply worries. Meanwhile, some economists have cut their growth forecasts amid a string of disappointing data and uncertainty over Trump's tariff policies.

“The selloff mostly reflects a shift in market focus from downside risk to Russia and Iran supply to softer US GDP growth,” Goldman Sach’s Daan Struyven wrote.

Struyven and his team expect oil demand will grow less than expected “incorporating slower US GDP growth on higher tariffs.”

Last week, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from all countries. The European Union responded with retaliatory levies against the US.

More US tariff plans are expected to be announce in early April.

Goldman Sachs analysts also anticipate higher OPEC+ supply next quarter.

Earlier this month futures fell after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) surprised Wall Street by announcing it would bump up production in April as a first step toward unwinding its production cuts.

On Monday, West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL=F) jumped around 1% to trade above $67 per barrel while Brent also gained roughly 1% to trade above $70.

The gain came after the US indicated it would continue to launch an offensive against Iranian backed Houthi rebels until their shipping attacks in the Red Sea stopped.

Source: Yahoo Finance

February saw a sharpselloff in tech stocks, catalyzed by chipmaker Nvidia, whose stock was batteredafter DeepSeek – the Chinese startup – released their new AI chatbot. When AIenthusiasm then waned, the tech sector suffered overall, and this was exacerbated by the economic uncertaintyimplied by President Trump’s plans to impose import tariffs on America’strading partners.

Some tech firms, however,have had a better time than others. For readers interested in online sharetrading, whether on the iFOREX platform or any other one, we offer our overviewof five of the biggest movers and shakers in the sector so far this year.

Pinterest

Between the beginning of2024 and mid-February 2025, Pinterest stock appreciated by 8% – considerablyless than the 26% gains recorded by the broader S&P 500 index. One of thefirm’s main challenges was that of heightened operational costs, but theirstock started to perk up in Q4 2024.

One week into February2025, Pinterest stock rose as much as 19.1% in share trading when Wall Street absorbedtheir results for the previous quarter. The firm had drawn in revenues of $1.15billion, making for year-on-year growth of 18%. Pinterest – which offers avisual platform for idea discovery – also raised their sales forecast for Q12025 from $837 million to $852 million.

CEO Bill Ready boaststhat “the platform has never been more actionable and our lower funnel focus isdriving results for users and advertisers”. Another thing Bill has going in hisfavour is a client base of monthly active members surpassing 553 million, whichbodes well for the future.

Netflix

During 2022, and then inthe excitement surrounding AI stocks, traders largely forgot about videostreamer Netflix. The company’s shares, however, gained a substantial 13% nearthe end of February 2025 for several good reasons. Traders were happily surprisedby the company’s Q4 results, which included figures like 16% revenue growth. Inaddition, Netflix added as many as 18.9 million subscribers, making the WallStreet estimate of 9.2 million pale in comparison. The company also raised itssubscription prices, which look set to drive further revenue growth.Specifically, they hiked the prices of their ad-supported tier from $6.99 to$7.99 in America in a move thoroughly approved of by JP Morgan and otheranalysts.

Netflix hosted theenormously successful fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul last year, whichwas reportedly the most watched sporting event in history. Since the firm hasdirect access to a viewer base numbering 300 million people, the field of live sportingevents could prove even more fruitful for them in times to come.

Sony

Sony’s biggest growthengine is its gaming segment, which lately churns out the popular PlayStation 5platform. Their fiscal year saw a significant drop in gaming sales in Q2, butthe following quarter saw a heartening 16% increase in sales year-on-year.Beyond gaming, the company offers services in music, film, and even financialservices, all of which experienced growth in fiscal Q3. Their earnings pershare for the quarter came in at $0.41 – better than analysts’ expectations of$0.30.

The firm raised theirrevenue forecast in February, sparking a 10.7% surge in share trading atmid-month. Now they anticipated sales for the year to come in 4% higher thantheir November estimate. All this came on the back of solid performance inSony’s gaming and music divisions in Q3. For instance, 9.5 million units of thePlayStation 5 console were sold, dwarfing predictions of only 8.2 million. Onefigure that makes CEO Hiroki Totoki particularly proud is the company’s 5%year-on-year rise in active user accounts.

Meta Platforms

The start of February waspositive for Meta, who recorded their 12th consecutive session ofshare price gains, bringing their market capitalization up to $1.8 trillion. Asto DeepSeek’s earlier shakeup of AI stocks, this actually left Meta with reasonto smile, namely that the company is “the only one of the ‘Magnificent 7’ tofocus on an open-sourced model”, in the words of Angelo Zino of CFRA Research,which we’ll explain.

Software is calledopen-sourced when its developers publicize its source code, making it possiblefor others to use and build upon it. By contrast, closed-sourced software,whose foundational code remains wrapped in mystery, functions under the controlof the developer. DeepSeek’s most recent AI model, called R1, falls under theopen-source category, and this contributed to its attractiveness. That’s because this software type is cheaper, which lowerscosts for developers, thus promoting more aggressive innovation. CEO MarkZuckerberg believes his firm’s AI assistant will become the most popular ofthem all.

Intel

Under President Biden,moves were made to bolster the US’s manufacturing prominence in the face ofEast Asian strength. The US Chips and Science Act channeled American taxpayerfunds to Intel – the only American company capable of producing AI chips. In orderto merit the continued flow of capital, however, the firm has to meet deadlinesin terms of new manufacturing activity, which is why a delay – announced at theend of February – in the opening of Intel’s semiconductor plant in Ohio wasquite disappointing.

Rewinding to mid-month,however, Intel had clocked in 23.6% gains in only one week, inspired by rumoursof a possible partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSCM) –Intel’s arch nemesis. It was also reported that the US government mightcontinue pumping capital into the newly created entity. Trump’s statedintention of protecting domestic manufacturers could bring even more benefitsto the US chip firm in months and years to come.

FinalThoughts

The tech sector is hometo some of the most pioneering companies in the stock market today. Operatingin fields like artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and cloudcomputing, they ceaselessly find means of improving the ways we work,communicate, shop, and use our leisure time. It’s widely agreed that – blipsaside – the sector will adopt a commanding role in our future society. Whetherprices are rising or falling, you can benefit from these companies’ growthstories through CFD trading on thecelebrated iFOREX CFD trading platform.

Source: ForexLive