The new year is only three weeks old, and investors have already witnessed a number of historic moves across global financial markets.
A bond-market bust-up in Japan. Silver's (SI00) surge into three-figure territory. Natural-gas (NG00) prices powering higher. Small-cap stocks outperforming their larger peers. And those are just a few of the more notable examples.
"It's only been 23 days into the new year, and the market events of this week make it feel like it's been at least seven years," said Hardika Singh, an economic strategist at Fundstrat.
Natural gas soars more than 60% in 3 days
Ahead of a powerful winter storm threatening much of the U.S., there's been an epic rally in natural gas.
Prices for the front-month Nymex contract for February delivery (NGG26) rose 62.6% in three days to $5.05 per million British thermal units, Dow Jones Market Data showed. It was the biggest three-day percentage gain for natural-gas futures on record.
Ahead of this latest move, speculators had been heavily net short natural gas, according to weekly data on futures-market positioning from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
"The move in gas has caught speculators off guard," said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, in commentary shared with MarketWatch.
Small caps race ahead
One of the biggest stories in the U.S. stock market so far in 2026 has been the performance of the Russell 2000 index RUT of small-cap stocks.
Through Thursday, the index had outperformed the S&P 500 index SPX for 14 straight trading sessions. That marked the longest such streak since May 1996, Dow Jones Market Data showed. The small-cap Russell 2000 has tallied seven record closing highs already this year.
Small caps have been doing pretty well since early November, when value stocks, cyclical stocks and other lagging corners of the market started to outperform after trailing their large-cap growth rivals for years.
"You've had a couple of months of this, so you can say it has some legs," said Thomas Martin, portfolio manager at Globalt Investments.
Silver and gold surge
Metals prices have come a long way over the past 12 months, with silver outshining gold by a wide margin.
On Friday, silver futures (SI00) topped $100 an ounce for the first time in history, Dow Jones Market Data showed. Gold futures (GC00), meanwhile, were on the cusp of crossing above $5,000 an ounce for the first time.
Japanese bonds sell off
Japanese bond yields have been creeping higher for a couple of years now, but earlier this week, they suddenly surged as investors worried about the Japanese government's plans for its budget.
"To me, it was a bit reminiscent of the trade we had with Liz Truss in the U.K.," Globalt's Martin said, referring to the bond-market tumult that helped force the British prime minister out of office in 2022. "When Japanese yields went up, they took the rest of the world's yields with them."
Yields for the 40-year Japanese government bond BX:TMBMKJP-40Y crossed above 4% for the first time. The 29.7-basis-point jump on Tuesday sent the yield to 4.0784%, the largest one-day jump since April 9, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has called an early snap election for Feb. 8. If her party wins, many expect that could make it easier for her to cut taxes and boost spending, an agenda that has made bond investors nervous. Japan has the world's highest level of debt relative to gross domestic product.
"She has promised a temporary cut to the sales tax on food if she wins. This is a costly pledge and could amount to $31 billion a year," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.
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