Lithium Carbonate Price Trends: Lithium carbonate prices have stabilized below CNY 97,500 per tonne, following a significant drop from the highs of 2023, indicating a market balance between supply and demand.

Mereo BioPharma develops therapeutics for oncology and rare diseases, with strong buy recommendations and price targets between $4 and $5.

A look at the cozy relationships permitting securitized bullion to be used for market liquidity purposes.

The $40,000 level is the most apparent, with additional support from the 50-day Exponential Moving Average just above it. The market also finds support around $38,000 and $35,000.

GBP is falling today after the latest labor market data released this morning showed a firm drop in wage growth over the three months to November.

The US market resumed its activity after the long weekend break due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day starting a week with a diverse range of economic data releases.

With oil not rallying immediately either, this means uncertainty and rush to just dollar safe haven rather than sudden and lasting flip to bearishness in all risk assets.

The US dollar is bid across the board and posting its best session of the month. It is up between about 0.5% (Canadian dollar) to almost 1.0% (Australian dollar) among the G10 currencies.

The December 13th Fed pivot lit a fire under risk assets, leading equity shorts to cover and ETF inflows to jump.

We expect the ECB to stay on hold and give very little indication about the timing of any upcoming rate cut.

Thanks to the Martin Luther King Day holiday, FX markets were quiet-ish on Monday without the participation of US banks.

For a week that had more negative than positive headlines, the S&P 500 perhaps surprisingly turned in a pretty good week. The index rose 1.8% to 4,783.83.

As the economy moves away from growth, toward shrinkage, major changes can be expected.

The hope, as always, is that Q4 earnings and the entire coming year’s reports will rise to justify the market’s overvaluation. However, when earnings are rising, so are the markets.

Asian equity markets and currencies are under a little pressure today and have cast a slightly risk-off tone across global FX markets.

USD/JPY climbs quickly above 146.50 as investors reconsider bets supporting a rate cut from the Fed in March.

WTI Crude Price Dynamics: West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures have stabilized above $72 per barrel, influenced by the dual factors of Middle East tensions and a complex global demand outlook.

The Euro has come under fresh selling pressure today on the back of comments from ECB’s Villeroy.

The US stock market did not trade yesterday due to the bank holiday.

I hope you all had a meaningful MLK holiday. A look at early morning futures action shows that the market is slightly unnerved. There certainly are enough reasons.