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FTSE 100 Live: Gold rally eases; Trump warns UK on China trade

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Investors have been piling into gold for several reasons (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Gold has lost its shine in the first half of the year

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Wire liveblog.

As we round off the first month of trading, miners have dominated market activity.

After becoming the FTSE 100’s top riser in 2025, gold miner Fresnillo has continued with gains in the new year, netting 20 per cent already. This is an inch below the FTSE 350 mining index, which is up 22 per cent for the year-to-date.

The gains have come amid the soaring price of gold, which continued it’s blistering rally to surpass $5,500 on Thursday.

But by the afternoon the index had plunged by over five per cent to just shy of $5,200 as silver also took a tumble to $110 an ounce.

Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Markets said the surge across metals was entering a “dangerous phase” and warned over FOMO (fear of missing out) trade.

Still for miners the activity is fuelling a bonanza across the industry.

Fresh data has showed the aggregate value of global mining M&A activity hit $93.7bn (£67.9bn), the highest annual total since 2012 when $129.3bn of transactions were recorded.

It was a notable increase compared to the last two years, with total deal values rising by 27 per cent from 2023 where $73.6bn of deals were completed, according to the latest survey from law firm White & Case.

Transactions jumped 23 per cent compared to 2024, where deals totalled $76.5bn, as demand for critical minerals, including gold, lithium and cobalt, heated up amid the growth of the AI market and clean energy transition.

Will it be miners who continue to dominate City market chatter in the months to come?

Here’s a few of our top headlines from yesterday: