In early trading, renewed conflict in the Middle East may reignite the upward trend.

Gold:

On the last trading day of the past week,Can Visa credit cards accept foreign exchange the global digital systems experienced the largest outage in history. The cause was a security software vulnerability from US-based Crowd Strike, which brought down Microsoft's Windows system. Analysts indicate that this major incident will significantly affect financial transactions and complex systems such as aviation, further impacting the global supply chain.

Last Friday (July 19th), New York Federal Reserve President Williams stated that the long-term trend of pushing the neutral rate to a lower level than before the pandemic still exists. In June, the Fed's estimated neutral rate rose from 2.5% to around 2.8%. The Federal Reserve will hold a policy meeting on July 30-31, and this week officials have entered a quiet period.

Technical Analysis: After gold prices reached a historic high last week, they significantly pulled back, closing the week with a long upper shadow hammer bearish candle. The bearish momentum is strong. On the daily chart, the price has been in a continuous downtrend for the past three days, and it is expected that at least today, new lows will appear.

Crude Oil:

On July 19th, the International Court of Justice, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that Israel’s settlement policies are in violation of international law. The court found that Israel violated Articles 53 and 64 of the Geneva Conventions, with Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories amounting to de facto annexation and the continued establishment of settlements in these territories being illegal.

Early last Friday, the Israeli capital Tel Aviv was attacked by a drone strike, which resulted in 1 death and at least 10 injuries. The Houthi movement in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israel Defense Forces stated that the attack came from the air, but Israel's air defense system did not respond. The explosion occurred approximately 100 meters from the US consulate building.

Technical Analysis: While gold prices dropped considerably last week, oil prices fell even more. The oil price dropped by 4.36%, with the last time it fell more than 4% in a week being in early May. The oil price sharply broke below the 55-day moving average at the last moment of the past week, exhibiting strong bearish momentum.

Important Notice: The above content and viewpoints are provided by Zhisheng Research for reference only and do not constitute any investment advice. Investors operate based on this information at their own risk.

The market carries risks, and investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and has not taken into account individual users' specific investment goals, financial situations, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. Investing based on this is at one's own responsibility.