Spot gold climbed 1.4% to $4,190.49 and was on track for a weekly gain of about 1.2% as bargain buying emerged after prices hit a two-month low. A Stone X analyst said the $4,000 area is building a floor. US gold futures for December delivery also rose 1.4% to $4,215.60. Markets are pricing an 84% probability of at least one rate hike by December, while spot silver gained 2.6%.

The World Meteorological Organization has warned that a severe rainfall deficit in India in 2026 could lower sucrose content in sugarcane, reduce the effective harvested area and curb overall output, with a near-100% chance that El Nino conditions persist through February 2027. Indian authorities say speculation and hoarding in parts of the trade have also contributed to a recent rise in retail sugar prices.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister said in the Budget 2027 tabling that the government and Grab will jointly fund a RM160 million package to raise gig workers’ earnings and welfare, according to Bernama. Grab said it has reached an agreement in principle on a proposed minimum baseline rate for ehailing drivers and phailing delivery partners. The company plans to increase drivers’ and couriers’ income from 2027 without increasing passenger fares.

U.S. Treasury yields eased from recent highs, with the 10-year yield down 3.3 basis points on the week to 5.243% and the 2-year yield down 3.4 basis points to 4.789%. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed higher, led by the Nasdaq Composite up 0.64% and the S&P 500 up 0.59%, while the Dow added 423 points. President Donald Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, as WTI settled near $92 a barrel and Brent ended above $104 a barrel.

Solana mainnet has activated a 200-millisecond slot target, halving the previous 400-millisecond timing and raising block-production opportunities to five per second. The change also shortens a network epoch to roughly 24 hours from about 48 hours. It marks the final step in a four-stage rollout, implemented by Anza via the Agave validator client through the SIMD-0525 upgrade.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday, with the Dow up 0.8% and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rising about 0.6%. Investors turned their focus to next week, when third-quarter earnings season begins and key inflation data are expected. Analysts are looking for big banks to help drive overall S&P 500 profit growth of 30%. Separately, U.S. consumer sentiment weakened this month and near-term expectations fell to a record low, according to the University of Michigan.

Bitcoin traded at $82,250 U.S. as of Oct. 10, down nearly 5% over the past week and down 1.50% so far in October after a 42% gain in the third quarter. The benchmark 10year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 5.25%, its highest level since April 2002. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of $487.1 million U.S. for the week, the largest since June 25, and are down $165 million U.S. in October. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said the firm will stop accumulating ETH once its holdings reach 5% of the token’s circulating supply.

Evernorth has completed its merger, becoming a publicly traded XRP treasury company. The transaction closed on Oct 9, 2026, and the company’s shares and warrants are set to trade on Nasdaq starting Oct 12 under XRPN and XRPNW, respectively, according to an 8-K filed with the SEC. At closing, Ripple contributed about 126.8M XRP, with total contributions of about 389M XRP plus about $225M in cash from Ripple, a Ripplelinked investor, the sponsor and other investors. Asheesh Birla will serve as chief executive officer, and Ripple’s stake is subject to a 6-month lockup.