Current Events in April 2025

Key takeaways

• Geopolitical and trade tensions: The dramatic rise in gold prices is largely driven by escalating U.S.-China trade tensions, including new tariffs and retaliatory actions. Coupled with ongoing geopolitical instability (e.g., unresolved conflict in Ukraine and uncertainty around U.S. foreign policy), these factors have made gold an appealing safe-haven investment.

• Economic uncertainty: A weakening U.S. dollar—now at a three-year low—has amplified gold's appeal by increasing its relative value. Simultaneously, fears of a recession, stoked by the tariff policies, have led institutional investors to shift assets from stocks to gold.

• Central bank actions and Fed policy speculation: China’s strategic tripling of gold in its reserves highlights a broader trend of central banks accumulating gold to reduce reliance on U.S. bonds. Additionally, speculation about potential political interference with the Federal Reserve has intensified market anxiety, further boosting gold demand.

The price of gold moved steadily higher throughout 2024, but in recent weeks it has surged. From approximately $2,657.60 per ounce at the beginning of 2025, the price of gold has now surpassed $3,400 an ounce.

According to economists, there are at least six factors driving the price skyward.

1. Escalating U.S.-China trade tensions

On April 2, President Trump announced steep tariffs on just about every trading partner, with the highest tariffs on China. China responded with tariffs of its own and the potential trade war made investors extremely nervous. They responded by selling stocks and bonds and buying gold, a traditional safe haven in times of uncertainty.

2. Weaker dollar

Because of growing economic uncertainty, investors have shied away from the U.S. dollar, sending its value to a three-year low. A weaker dollar makes gold more attractive, since it now takes more dollars to buy an ounce of goal – a strong reason for the rising price. ​

3. Central bank activity

Central banks, especially China's, have significantly increased their gold reserves over the last few months, and stepped up that activity amid this month’s uncertainty. China has actually tripled the share of gold in its foreign reserves to 8%. It appears to be a strategic move aimed and reducing reliance on U.S. bonds.

4. Recession fears

The U.S. Tariffs have also increased worried about an economic slowdown that could turn intoo a recession. That’s prompted many institutional investors around the world to reallocate more of their assets from equities to gold. A Bank of America survey indicates that 42% of fund managers now favor gold, up from 23% in March.​

5. Geopolitical instability

President Trump had hoped to broker a peace deal by now between Russian and Ukraine, but has been frustrated. The fighting goes on. There are also growing uncertainties surrounding U.S. foreign policy. That uncertainty has also driven gold prices higher​

6. Speculation about Federal Reserve policies

President Trump’s dissatisfaction with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spilled into public view last week, leading to speculation that Trump might try to affect changes to Fed policies and even try to fire Powell. Concerns about the Fed's independence and future monetary policy directions have made gold look like a safe place to put your assets.

Key takeaways:

• Nearly a quarter of Americans are scrapping plans for major purchases, including buying a home, and nearly a third are delaying purchases.
• Americans are avoiding homebuying at a time when sales are slowing and prices have flatlined.
• There may be deals if a decline in homebuying lowers home prices.

Tariffs are causing Americans to scrap big ticket purchases, presenting opportunities for those with deeper pockets.

The tariffs are harming housing markets in a few ways, including sending mortgage rates seesawing and boosting construction costs.

Now, more than half of Americans are cancelling or delaying major purchases, such as homes and cars, because of the tariffs, according to a April 10 to 14 survey by real-estate brokerage Redfin.

Some 39% of survey respondents also said they were much less likely to make a major purchase this year.

“Consumers are tightening their belts because they are rightly nervous about their job security and the prospect of paying more for everyday expenses," said Redfin economics lead Chen Zhao in a statement.

A decline in Americans buying homes could benefit prospective homebuyers looking for a better deal.

"There are some potential silver linings for homebuyers: the drop in demand could cause home prices to stay flat, or even fall, and there’s some chance mortgage rates could drop in the next few months,” Zhao said.

Homes have been selling at their slowest pace in six years, with homes typically staying on the market for 47 days, the longest period of any March since 2019, Redfin said.

Home values have only risen 0.2% in March, a month of typically strong growth, and prospective homebuyers now have 19% more homes to choose from than a year ago, according to a report from real-estate website Zillow.

Zillow's home price forecast has also turned negative, predicting that home values decline 1.9% in 2025.

"Buyers — especially first-timers without equity to pour into their down payment — continue to struggle with affordability and now are facing even higher levels of uncertainty," said Zillow Chief Economist Skylar Olsen in a statement. "A turbulent economy likely weighs more heavily on first-time buyers than more firmly established sellers."

Still, there are strong real-estate markets in the Northeast and Midwest, where homes available for sale still remain well below prepandemic 2019 levels, even though "there's growing softness and weakness right now in many pockets of the Sun Belt," said Lance Lambert, co-founder and editor and chief of industry publication ResiClub, in a newsletter.

Lambert said Zillow's negative forecast may be too bearish, considering there are other reputable forecasts still predicting home prices to rise in 2025 as of March, including Fannie Made predicting a 1.7% increase and Wells Fargo saying home prices will rise 3%.

Key Takeaways:

• Hospitalizations cut by 59% for high-risk patients using University of Michigan’s home monitoring program.

• $12 million return on investment achieved through reduced readmissions, making the program cost-effective.

• Largest and longest study to date confirms benefits of remote patient monitoring for various chronic conditions beyond COVID-19.

The number of staffed hospital beds has decreased from approximately 802,000 before the COVID-19 pandemic to around 674,000 post-pandemic—a 16% decline, according to the Healthcare Leadership Portal. But a new study from the University of Michigan reveals that remote patient monitoring (RPM) can drastically reduce hospital readmissions for high-risk individuals—cutting hospitalization rates by more than half in the six months following program enrollment. 

The findings, published in Telemedicine and E-Health, suggest transformative potential for healthcare systems strained by overcrowding and rising costs.

The study examined the Patient Monitoring at Home (PMH) program, launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. Patients with heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension, severe COVID-19, and other high-risk conditions were sent home with a kit containing a tablet, thermometer, blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, and scale. This technology enabled them to regularly transmit vital signs and symptom updates to clinicians at U-M Health, which monitored the data in real time and intervened as needed.

"These are promising results for hospitalization prevention," Dr. Sara Margosian, lead author and a geriatric medicine faculty member at U-M Health, said in a press release. "This program targets the people at highest risk for rehospitalization, and the ability to have an intervention that works is really exciting."

Scalable model

The study tracked outcomes from over 1,700 patients, making it the largest and most extensive evaluation of an RPM initiative to date. Among its striking results:

• A 59% overall reduction in hospitalizations after enrollment.

• A 49% reduction even when excluding COVID-19 patients.

• A $12 million net savings through avoided hospitalizations—making the initiative not only clinically effective but financially sustainable.

Patients used the monitoring kits for one to two months on average, yet the benefits endured well beyond the monitoring period, the researchers found.

U-M partnered with Health Recovery Solutions to develop an accessible system that doesn’t require home internet. The tablet connects to each monitoring device via Bluetooth and transmits data via a secure cellular signal. Patients are prompted to take daily readings and complete disease-specific surveys, which are reviewed by a clinical team that includes nurses, nurse practitioners, and physicians.

As the program matured, adherence improved markedly—by the third year, patients were logging vital signs 75% of the time and completing surveys 71% of the time.

Key Takeaways:

• Physical fitness may reduce risk of brain atrophy: A new study from UT Southwestern Medical Center finds that high cardiorespiratory fitness can help preserve brain volume and cognitive function as people age.

• Exercise linked to brain region key for cognition: Physically fit adults showed greater preservation of the right superior parietal region of the brain, associated with reasoning, memory, and fluency.

• Benefits apply to both sexes: The protective effect of physical fitness on brain volume was consistent in both men and women, supporting the importance of lifelong physical activity for cognitive health.

A study conducted by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found that maintaining high levels of physical fitness may help protect the brain from age-related shrinkage and cognitive decline. 

The findings, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, suggest that individuals who stay physically active may be better equipped to preserve brain volume and fend off neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

“Age-related brain atrophy is one of the significant risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD),” Dr. Rong Zhang, senior author of the study, said in a press release. “This study suggests that engaging in activity to improve one’s physical fitness may reduce the risk of ADRD.”

The study

The study focused on 172 healthy but sedentary adults, aged 22 to 81, from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Participants underwent cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) testing, cognitive assessments, and brain MRI scans. The CRF was measured through peak oxygen consumption, an established indicator of cardiovascular and pulmonary efficiency during physical exertion.

Researchers observed that aging generally corresponded with a decline in gray matter volume and cortical thickness. However, the data showed that individuals with higher levels of CRF experienced significantly less volume loss in the right superior parietal region—a brain area vital to cognitive functions such as reasoning, memory, and verbal fluency. The association held steady even after controlling for factors such as sex, education, and intracranial volume.

The preserved brain volume in this area correlated with stronger performance on cognitive tests, indicating that high physical fitness levels may contribute to maintaining sharper mental abilities with age. This protective effect was evident in both men and women, further highlighting the broad benefits of physical activity.

Policies to slow dementia

With over 6 million Americans currently living with ADRD—a number projected to rise to nearly 14 million by 2060—researchers say these findings could influence public health strategies aimed at slowing the progression of dementia through lifestyle changes.

Lead author Dr. Junyeon Won, a postdoctoral research fellow, conducted the study in collaboration with the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas and cognitive researchers at UT Dallas. The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health.