Insights

Weekly Market Commentary – 16th January 2026

16 January 2026

This has been another week dominated by Donald Trump’s political moves as the US president encouraged protests in Iran and threatened a military response to violent government suppression. Trump threatened higher tariffs on countries which do business with Iran. His administration has also opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. The investigation has been rightly condemned as politicallydriven interference but concerns about central bank independence added to the recent rally in gold.