Tuesday, August 25, 2026 — Sensex drops 200 pts, Nifty slips below 24,150 on harsher Iran sanctions; Bitcoin reclaims $80,000 first since mid-May; SK Hynix wage deal rejected by just 25 votes.

Gold holds near a three-month high and the dollar struggles as markets weigh Iran sanctions and Treasury buybacks. The dollar weakness is the common driver—watch DXY, it’s feeding both gold and crypto. Prediction markets are dovish: KXFED shows only 20.5% chance the fed funds upper bound is above 3.75% after July 29, and KXPAYROLLS just 30.5% for +125k July jobs. Lower-rate expectations are the fuel behind the risk asset bid. Bitcoin crosses $80,000 for the first time since mid-May, up 28% in August on a weaker dollar. The issue is this is a big psychological level but equity futures are soft—the tape is split between crypto risk appetite and equity caution. Sensex drops 200 points, Nifty below 24,150 as harsher US sanctions on Iran raise oil and import-bill fears for India. Nifty is trapped between key moving averages and August expiry is near—watch for a directional break. SEBI drops the Rs 3,912 crore probe against Max Financial and Axis Bank over disclosure lapses. That removes

Gold holds near a three-month high and the dollar struggles as markets weigh Iran sanctions and Treasury buybacks. The dollar weakness is the common driver—watch DXY, it’s feeding both gold and crypto.