USA VS IRAN: TRUMP ACTIVATES THE ULTIMATE ECONOMIC TRAP – 25% TARIFF ON ALL COUNTRIES TRADING WITH TEHRAN

🇺🇸⚔️ Donald Trump has just signed an executive order (February 6, 2026) that formalizes the threat: any country continuing to purchase goods or services from Iran risks an additional 25% tariff on all its imports to the United States.

The text specifies:

“Effective immediately, an additional tariff—for example, 25%—may be imposed on products imported into the United States from any country that directly or indirectly purchases, imports, or acquires Iranian goods/services.”

Trump is no longer negotiating: he is dictating.

Dedollarization: The yuan is steadily gaining share in global trade finance.

- The yuan share rose from ~2% in 2020.
- It climbed to over 8% by early 2025.
- That is a 4× increase in five years.

This is a structural shift.

- The steepest gains began after 2022.
- Since then, usage rose roughly +1-2% annually

China increasingly settles trade in yuan, especially with energy and commodity exporters, reducing the for USD. At the same time, the weaponization of the dollar system increased the risk of relying on Western clearing.

The world is shifting into 2 competing blocks

This shift comes at a time when trust in the US and US institutions is at a record low.

- US lost the proxy war against Russia
- Trump says international law doesn’t apply to the US
- The US sanctions friend and foe alike
- US deficits are at crisis/recession levels

The yuan does not need to replace the dollar to matter.... it only needs to keep taking marginal share to reduce demand for USTs and the dollar, causing massive damage.

China’s gold demand is strong.

The combination of:

- Central bank buying
- Dedollarization
- Safe-haven asset status

Is leading Chinese citizens to buy physical #gold.

Solar is quietly becoming a major #silver driver

- PV silver demand was ~82 Moz in 2016
- It reached ~198 Moz by 2024
- That’s a ~140% increase in 8 years

And it’s not slowing.

- 2030 demand is projected at 320-450 Moz
- That implies another +60-130% increase
- Which would equate to ~50% of current silver production

At the same time:

- We are running 5 consecutive years of silver deficits
- Military demand for silver is rising
- Silver has been classified as a strategic metal

Silver inventories and prices are going to get squeezed.

The Dangerous Dollar"

The British magazine The Economist dedicated the main article of its latest issue to the toxicity of the US currency and the assertion that "the old financial architecture is collapsing".

The article notes that dollar assets are no longer a safe haven, and the US currency itself is becoming toxic. While the US claims to have a "great economy", the figures say otherwise: since its peak in January 2025, the dollar has lost a tenth of its value in the currency rating.

It is also stated that US stocks denominated in euros have hardly brought any profits to investors over the past year. Experts from The Economist are confident that this is not just a temporary volatility, but a fundamental change. The key conclusion of the article is that the world understands very well that storing savings in the currency of a country with an astronomical national debt (already more than 38.7 trillion dollars) and an aggressive sanctions policy is an unjustifiable risk.

Saturday, Feb 7 2026, 14:00 UTC time

📋 Latest Important Headlines — Market & Macro Snapshot

✅ Global markets & commodities
📌 Gold trades near USD 4,952.32/oz — haven demand remains elevated amid macro uncertainty, supporting bullion as a carry and portfolio hedge.

🔖 Canada
📋 TSX posts strong weekly gains — Canadian equities outperformed on the week, led by cyclical sectors and commodity strength; risk sentiment improved but positioning remains sensitive to global rate and commodity moves.

📌 Japan
✅ Yen slips as markets price in a potential win for Sanae Takaichi and a shift toward reflationary policies — weaker JPY raises FX volatility and export reaction risks, with implications for global carry trades and Asian FX flows.

🔖 United States — inflation & politics
📋 Inflation narratives heat up: multiple analyses flag rising inflation expectations last year and stress how even inflation worries materially affect markets and policy pricing. Upcoming data prints could overturn the market’s rate-cut hopes and reprice Fed expectations. 
✅ Trump’s economic messaging: in speeches, he repeatedly claims an “inflation victory” (~20 mentions) despite persistent price pressures — political rhetoric may influence sentiment but fundamentals (data) will drive market rate pricing.

Market takeaway — Elevated inflation expectations, central-bank watchfulness, and political developments in major economies (US, Japan) are the dominant drivers. Gold and commodity-linked assets benefit from safe-haven and inflation hedging demand, while FX and equity positioning remain sensitive to shifts in policy outlook and geopolitical headlines.

US data center electricity consumption is off the charts.

- 2018: US data centers consumed 2% of US electricity
- 2030: It is expected to reach ~10%
- That’s a 5x increase in 12 years

This requires huge amounts of natural resources.

Brazil joins the dedollarization trend

Normally, Brazil issues USD-denominated bonds.

Now it’s choosing yuan-denominated bonds.

- 10-year Chinese government bond: ~1.7%
- 10-year U.S. Treasury: ~4.4%
- It is ~60% cheaper to borrow in yuan

This makes sense because China is the biggest trading partner for most countries,
including Brazil.

We are witnessing a new monetary system.

- Countries need less dollar/US debt
- Countries move toward gold as the preferred reserve asset

Dedollarization is accelerating

Top 100 24h Gainers 🚀

LEO          $7.83            +6.24% 
BCH          $524.30        +5.65% 
NIGHT      $0.0531        +5.55% 
M              $1.70            +3.95% 
MYX          $6.52            +3.82% 

Top 100 24h Losers 🔻

WLFI        $0.1007        -12.72%
HYPE        $31.44          -7.97% 
MORPHO    $1.14            -6.38% 
WFLR        $0.009512    -6.15% 
FLR          $0.009512    -5.66%

🚨 Gold just overtook the US dollar in central bank reserves

• Gold share: 13% → 24% (2021–2025) 📈
• US debt share: 28% → 23% 📉
• 2025 is the first year gold leads.

This isn’t about fear or inflation.
It’s about trust, sanctions risk, and currency credibility.

Central banks aren’t trading.
They’re re-anchoring.

If reserves are shifting quietly… when do markets fully catch up?

#gold

🚨 Critical Minerals Reality Check

Who digs them up ≠ who controls them

⛏️ Extraction
• #Copper → 🇨🇱 Chile
• #Nickel → 🇮🇩 Indonesia
• Cobalt → 🇨🇩 DRC
• Lithium → 🇦🇺 Australia
• Rare earths → 🇨🇳 China

🏭 Processing
• Copper, Nickel, Cobalt, Lithium, Rare earths → 🇨🇳 #China dominates

Mining is global. Control is Chinese.
Processing, not extraction, is the real choke point in energy, EVs, and defense.

Who cracks processing first: the US, Europe… or no one?

🚨 Copper Margins Are Blowing Out

🔺 Copper prices near cycle highs
🔻 C1 costs historically low
➕ Gold & silver by-product credits at records

What’s happening?

• By-products are offsetting mining costs
• Energy and processing costs haven’t caught up
• Margins are at multi-year highs

This is a margin super-cycle for copper producers.

Do miners reinvest aggressively… or return cash before costs snap back?
#copper #mining #metals

China just handed itself a strategic own goal.

Beijing tried to pressure Japan by weaponizing rare earths. Export controls. Threats. Political pressure.
Instead of weakening Sanae Takaichi, it turbo-charged her support.

Every squeeze made her message stronger:
• China is a security risk
• Japan must re-arm
• Strategic autonomy matters

Public opinion hardened. Defense spending became easier to sell. Her leadership credentials improved.

So China quietly backed down and reopened exports. Not goodwill. Fear.

Fear that Japan would accelerate domestic rare-earth production.
Fear that once Japan produces its own supply, the US and Europe won’t care about price. They’ll buy security.

That’s the real loss for China.
Not leverage today. Permanent leverage tomorrow.

Lesson:
Coercion creates resilience.
Pressure builds alternatives.
And economic weapons stop working once the target adapts.

#china #Japan #minerals

The #uranium supply–demand model is broken

- India plans to 10x nuclear generation capacity by 2047, reaching 100 GW
- This would add 50 mlbs of annual uranium demand
- Equivalent to roughly 30% of current global uranium production

At the same time, uranium supply is expected to decline over this period.

This creates a projected cumulative deficit of 1.7B lbs...
nearly 10x current annual uranium production.

Uranium is one of my favorite long-term plays.

Trade $URA with up to 100x leverage: gains.trade/trading#URA-USD

Almost no one is invested in #gold miners.

- All gold and gold-mining ETFs combined have a market cap of ~$600B
- Apple alone has a market cap of ~$3.65T
- Apple’s market cap is ~5× larger
- Gold miners make up just ~0.2% of the S&P’s sector weighting

We haven’t seen the big capital rotation into gold miners yet.

We’re early.

🚨 CHINA’S $1.19 TRILLION SURPLUS

⚔️THIS IS THE REAL TRADE WAR MAP

Forget slogans, Follow the money

China just printed one of the largest trade surpluses in history.

And the partners tell you exactly where pressure will land next.

• 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: +$304B

• 🇺🇸 United States: +$280B

• 🇮🇳 #India: +$116B

• 🇻🇳 Vietnam: +$100B

• 🇳🇱 Netherlands: +$73B

• 🇬🇧 UK: +$66B

👉 Top 3 alone = $700B+

👉 Asia + US dominate the imbalance

👉 Europe is exposed but fragmented

📌 Why this matters now

• Tariffs are back
• Supply chains are being forced to move
• India is being courted, not pressured
• Vietnam is in the crosshairs
• Europe talks strategy, but absorbs surplus

#China doesn’t need confrontation everywhere.

It just needs persistent surplus concentration.

⚠️ Trade wars don’t start where deficits are small.

They start where imbalances are politically impossible to ignore.

The next phase of global trade tension will not be ideological.

It will be arithmetical.

Who do you think Washington pressures next.

Vietnam, India, or Europe?

US, Canadian and Australian critical minerals stocks surged during Fridays session.

Top performers include $ATMY up 27.54 percent, $UAMY up 15.42 percent, $UCU up 14.68 percent, $TMC up 13.45 percent, and $AREC up 12.64 percent. Notably, Canadian antimony explorer $MAXM, focused on highgrade projects in British Columbia, rose 7.65 percent, underscoring broader North American benefits from enhanced critical mineral security.

This development fosters economic resilience and national security through targeted stockpiling of essential materials like antimony and rare earths. #CriticalMinerals #ProjectVault

The fight between China and the US for control of resources will ignite a commodity bull market.

- China’s Belt and Road Initiative investment surged ~75% in 2025 vs. 2024
- Spending was dominated by energy, metals&mining

We’re now seeing an important dynamic play out.

As the US tries to regain independence from China’s dominance in critical minerals, by investing in mining and processing capacity, China is almost doubling its 2024 pace.

Make no mistake: these are resource wars.

For both empires, securing supply chains and resources is a matter of national security. Access and control matter more than profits.

In this environment, you want to own resources.

He who controls downstream industries ultimately rules upstream industries.