EU stock markets uncertain; Moderna soars on Wall Street. Gold rallies as the US Treasury buys back its own bonds - Il Sole 24 ORE

European equities opened without a clear direction, reflecting lingering investor caution over growth and monetary policy. Across the Atlantic, sentiment was more buoyant, with Moderna shares surging on Wall Street—likely driven by company-specific news rather than a broad sector move. This divergence underscores how stock performance is increasingly tied to individual catalysts, even as macro backdrops remain volatile.

In commodities, gold’s rally drew attention to a technical but telling development: the U.S. Treasury’s repurchase of its own bonds. These buybacks are part of routine debt-management operations, not quantitative easing. Still, they can ease liquidity in the Treasury market and influence yields. As bond prices firm and yields dip, non-yielding assets like gold become relatively more attractive, helping explain the metal’s strength.

What to watch: whether Treasury buyback operations continue to support bond prices, and whether Europe’s uncertainty translates into sharper sector rotation. Gold’s move also bears monitoring—if yields keep drifting lower, the rally may extend.