Iránske sankcie, ropa klesá, nemecká byrokracia a zlato

WORLD

• Gas and electricity prices on exchanges stabilized after a sharp rise, remaining at an elevated level. Natural gas and electricity barely moved on European exchanges in week 38 of 2026, following sharp increases in previous weeks – prices remain high due to disrupted LNG supplies from the Persian Gulf caused by conflict between the United States and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
• The Saudi Arabian oil pipeline outage threatens oil supplies to Asia. The shutdown of the East-West Saudi Arabian pipeline puts deliveries to South Korea, Japan, China and India at risk; analysts estimate the volume of supplies at risk at 3.5–4.5 million barrels per day, but reserves may maintain exports for another 1–2 weeks.
• Trump announced the creation of an “AI Force” before meeting with Xi Jinping. Trump announced a new AI Force unit led by an “AI Czar” shortly before meeting with the Chinese president, where artificial intelligence will be the main topic. He promises free rein to the industry, while Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI called for slowing development and Nvidia and Meta downplayed security concerns.

EUROPE

• German automakers want a 40-hour week without higher wages, IG Metall protests. Volkswagen plans to eliminate 100,000 jobs and BMW up to 8,000 positions, while automakers simultaneously push for a 40-hour work week without wage increases. IG Metall is organizing demonstrations in over 200 locations on September 21.

GOLD

• Uganda’s export revenues rose 10.1% in July, driven by gold. Uganda’s Ministry of Finance announced that export revenues rose 10.1% year-on-year in July, with gold contributing to the growth, its export value increasing by 35%. Higher revenues could help cushion the weakening of the shilling against the dollar.
• Gold miners paid states a record 18.2 billion USD, emission intensity increased. According to the Gold ESG Focus 2026 report by Metals Focus, 18 large gold miners paid governments a record 18.2 billion dollars in 2025, up 77% year-on-year. However, energy and emission intensity of mining also increased, although safety improved to the lowest number of deaths since the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Gold weakened under pressure from a strengthening dollar and bets on a December rate hike. The price of gold fell on Monday as the dollar strengthened and CME FedWatch tool traders assigned an 88 percent probability to a December rate hike by the Fed. President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari warned that inflation is high across all sectors of the economy, TD Securities expects any short-term weakness to remain limited to moderate CTA selling.

STOCKS

• ECB launched Pontes, a system for settling tokenized assets. The European Central Bank launched the Pontes system on Monday, September 21, 2026, enabling wholesale settlement of tokenized assets directly in central bank reserves. The US, meanwhile, bet on private stablecoins instead of a Fed digital currency.
• King Copper doubled its area in the Peruvian Colquemayo project. King Copper Discovery Corp. expanded its land position in the Colquemayo copper project in southern Peru to more than double its size by strategically staking 8 new concessions covering approximately 7,170 hectares. The company is now in the process of awarding a drilling contract for a fully funded 36,010-meter drilling program for which it has already obtained environmental permits.
• Coinbase launches access to IPO shares, with Oura’s debut as the first offering. Coinbase is making access to initial public offerings (IPOs) available to eligible US retail customers directly through the app starting this week; the first offering is the debut of smart ring manufacturer Oura on Nasdaq. Access to future IPOs is conditional on investor behavior – quick selling of shares may result in temporary exclusion from the service.

CRYPTO

• Bitcoin jumped to 85,000 dollars, but the Senate blocked the Clarity Act. Bitcoin rose to as high as 85,229 USD on Monday, the highest since the end of January. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan speaks of a new bull market, but the cryptocurrency remains down for the year and the US Senate blocked the progress of the Clarity Act.

REAL ESTATE

• ECB raised rates again, mortgages in Slovakia will gradually become more expensive according to analysts. The ECB’s Governing Council raised key interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on September 10, 2026, due to persistent inflation linked to the conflict in the Middle East. Analysts disagree on how quickly this will affect mortgages in Slovakia.

Translated from the Slovak original and checked automatically: every figure must match the source, or this version is not published.