A quiet weekend before Monday's test: De Beers Sight 9 opens October 26, the first dated read on September's small-stone firmness

🪨 Rough — Still nothing new on the board since September's RAPI, so the small-stone firmness (0.50ct +2.5%, 1ct +0.3% for the month) carries into the weekend untested. The dated test is De Beers Sight 9, which runs from October 26 to 30 and opens Monday: the first read on whether that firmness reaches rough demand and the event that ends the quiet run.

This week's De Beers third-quarter update, with lower production and the Venetia mine entering a two-year pause, is the supply backdrop a buyer should carry into it. It should be read as a pause at one mine within raised full-year guidance (25 to 28 million carats, from 21 to 26 million), not a cut to overall supply.

🌍 Demand & macro — The one mover is metal, not stones: gold has eased to about $4,010 an ounce, down 6.7% since September 24, though the window slides and the shifting base date drives much of that figure rather than a fresh fall. It eases jewelers' metal costs into the season but says nothing about polished prices. Currencies are quiet, with the rupee flat near 94.9 to the dollar and the shekel and euro both within the quoting threshold, so there is nothing new for quoting this morning.