According to CoinMeta, the South African stock market saw a significant rise, achieving the largest increase in nearly seven months. The soaring stock prices of precious metals producers and the upward movement of gold prices were the main driving forces behind this trend. The FTSE/JSE Composite Index once rose by 5.2%, marking the largest gain since April 8th, following the global market's upward trend after the Democratic Party's decisive victory in the U.S. midterms. Due to local holidays, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange was closed on Wednesday. After the announcement of the U.S. election results, markets anticipated that a Democratic win could limit the tax and spending plans of the Trump administration, leading to lower yields on the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury bonds, which in turn drove a substantial increase in gold prices. Since gold does not generate interest, a decline in yields is generally favorable for gold, and a weaker U.S. dollar reduces the cost for holders of other currencies to buy gold. Rowan Williams, the chief investment officer of Johannesburg Nitrogen Fund Management Company, stated that the recent correlation between precious metals and U.S. interest rates as well as the trend of the U.S. dollar has surpassed its correlation with geopolitical risks. Now that the Democratic Party controls both the Senate and the House of Representatives, he believes that geopolitical risks have also decreased.