Small stones lead as US holiday demand firms

De Beers' realized rough price sits at $110/ct, down 37% year-on-year for Q2 — a quarterly benchmark rather than today's move, but it frames how far the miner has cut to clear boxes into a cautious midstream.

Rapaport's monthly RAPI shows 0.50ct up +4.10% against just +0.57% for 1ct, the clearest sign yet that this month's bid is concentrating in smaller, gift-priced stones rather than larger goods.

The shekel firmed 1.37% against the dollar this week (USD/ILS 3.01), quietly lifting Israeli desks' shekel-denominated costs, while gold's 6.79% monthly pullback to $4,379/oz eases jewelry metal input just as US holiday spending forecasts point higher. India's polished exports at $925M (-4.93% YoY in August) keep the midstream backdrop soft.

Signet's Joan Hilson signals firming natural-diamond demand into the holidays — a read from the largest US multi-banner retailer that, if it holds, pulls upstream into specific size and quality bands rather than the whole market evenly.

MadridJoya's 75th edition opens Sept 24–27 at IFEMA Madrid, the first of a dense autumn show calendar running on through Doha and Istanbul.