A quiet start to November: with Sight 9 behind us unread, the October RAPI is the only test left

Quotes still sit where September's RAPI left them, with the 0.50-carat index up 2.5% for the month against 0.3% at 1 carat, so the index's firmness sits at the small end, though Rapaport's October 22 market comment already reported 0.30- to 0.89-carat rounds softening as dealer inventory built. There is no fresh rough read to offset it either, since De Beers Sight 9 closed on October 30 without a public value and De Beers no longer publishes sight figures. That leaves the October RAPI, which had not been published as of this morning and is due in early November, as the only dated event that can move the list and settle whether September's small-stone lead held through the month.

Gold is still down about 7% since the start of October, near $3,900 an ounce, which keeps metal and setting costs lower for jewelers heading into the holiday season but leaves polished prices untouched. Currencies are quiet and back within the band: the shekel has eased to about 3.13 per dollar after firming to roughly 3.05 in late October, so that firming now reads as a one-week blip rather than the sustained turn it looked like at the time.