Articles

Honda plans to introduce a small electric vehicle priced under $30,000 by 2026, according to Nikkei.

The affordable EV will be part of Honda’s upcoming “Honda 0 Series” and is expected to be produced locally. However, while Honda aims to offer a budget-friendly EV, a company spokesperson clarified that no final decision has been made on launching this specific model in North America.

Another EV competitor.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

Commerzbank raised its gold price forecast for the end of Q1 2025 to $2,700 per troy ounce (previously $2,600).

In terms of year-end forecast, “we continue to expect a gold price of $2,650 per troy ounce.”

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

CNBC carried the report, in brief:

• The U.S. Navy issued a warning to its members to avoid using DeepSeek “in any capacity,” due to “potential security and ethical concerns.”
• The warning was sent out on Friday as buzz about the Chinese artificial intelligence startup was picking up across the tech industry.
• The email instructed all team members not to use DeepSeek “for any work-related tasks or personal use.”

CNBC adds:

• A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy confirmed the authenticity of the email and said it was in reference to the Department of the Navy’s Chief Information Officer’s generative AI policy.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

Axios with the report:

The White House will send out a memo Tuesday afternoon offering to pay federal workers who don’t want to return to the office through Sept. 30, as long as they resign by Feb. 6, a White House official tells Axios.

The government is urging federal workers to return to the office, as only 6% currently work in-office full-time, five years post-COVID.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

more to come

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Expectations I had seen centred on:

• Headline crude +3.2 mn barrels
• Distillates -2.3 mn bbls
• Gasoline +1.3 mn

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This data point is from a privately-conducted survey by the American Petroleum Institute (API).

• It’s a survey of oil storage facilities and companies
• The official report is due Wednesday morning US time.

The two reports are quite different.The official government data comes from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA)

• Its based on data from the Department of Energy and other government agencies
• Whereas information on total crude oil storage levels and variations from the previous week’s levels are both provided by the API report, the EIA report also provides statistics on inputs and outputs from refineries, as well as other significant indicators of the status of the oil market, and storage levels for various grades of crude oil, such as light, medium, and heavy.
• the EIA report is held to be more accurate and comprehensive than the survey from the API

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

Good morning, afternoon and evening all. Any charts, technical analysis, trade ideas, thoughts, views, ForexLive traders would like to share and discuss with fellow ForexLive traders, please do so:

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

The major US indices – led by the broader indices – closed solidly higher after sharp declines yesterday.

The final numbers are showing:

• Dow Industrial Average rose 138.77 points or 0.31% at 44850.35. Yesterday the index rose 0.65% despite the sharp falls in the broader indices
• S&P rose 55.42 points ro 0.92% to 6067.70 a day after closing down -1.46%
• Nasdaq rose 391.75 points or 2.03% at 19733.59 a day after closing down -3.07%.
• Russell 2000 rose 4.83 points or 0.21% at 2288.86

IN after-hours earnings,

• Starbucks EDS came in and $0.69 versus $0.67 expected. Revenues beat expectations at $9.4 billion versus $9.31 billion.
• Stryker EPS $4.01 versus $3.87 expected. Revenues $6.44 billion versus $6.36 billion expected.

Shares of Starbucks are trading up $3.21 or 3.20%, while Stryker shares are up $3.85 or 0.97%

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.

• US January consumer confidence 104.1 vs 105.6 expected
• US December durable goods orders -2.2% vs +0.6% expected
• US November CaseShiller house price index +4.3% vs +4.3% y/y expected
• Richmond Fed composite index for January -4 versus -13 estimate
• A rate cut is 99% priced in for Wednesday’s Bank of Canada meeting. Bigger questions loom
• White House Press Secretary says the Feb 1 date for tariffs on Canada and Mexico remains
• US treasury auctions offer 7-year notes at a high yield of 4.457%
• Atlanta Fed GDPNow Q4 forecast rises to 3.2% from 3.0%
• Canada planning covid-style stimulus if US enacts tariffs in bid to avoid early election

Markets:

• Gold up $24 to $2764
• US 10-year yield up 1 bps to 4.53%
• WTI crude oil up $0.53 to $77.61
• S&P 500 up 0.9%
• USD leads, JPY lags

The FX market was subdued in North America trading as the moves were largely sideways as everyone is digesting the Nvidia wipeout on Monday and the implications for the AI trade, including the macro implications. The euro traded close to 1.0430 after falling in Asia while other pairs chopped mostly sideways.

The dollar was higher on the day across the board as it rebounded from the drop yesterday. Part of the drop was deflation worries — as in deflation in the cost of AI — but there was also some angst about US tech dominance. Today there was a bounce proving that BTFD is still the kneejerk reaction. Nvidia traded lower briefly after the open and broke yesterday’s lows but then turned around and finished up nearly 9%.

That helped the Nasdaq to a 2% gain but worries about some big earnings reports starting tomorrow may have capped the enthusiasm.

The oil market was bounced around by Libya headlines but ultimately finished higher.

Late in the day there was some buying in the Treasury market, in part due to a strong auction. That didn’t spread to the US dollar but it’s worth watching closely.

Tomorrow, the focus will shift to the Bank of Canada and Federal Reserve rate decisions and then it’s back to ‘tariff watch’.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.

The Bank of Japan minutes are from the December 2024 meeting, which was a bit of a placeholder meeting. The ‘Summary’ of this meeting was released on December 26:

• BoJ December 2024 Summary of Opinions – ‘Gradual increase in CPI’

The Australian CPI for Q4 2024 is the focus, previewed here:

• Critical Australian inflation data due – likely to tick the RBA rate cut box?

• This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.
• The times in the left-most column are GMT.
• The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

Today, Unitree debuted the H1 “Fuxi” robot at the Spring Festival Gala as this was broadcast on CCTV.

It’s tough to tell how amazing these really are but I met the previous generation with the hand-shaking robot and the dog in Dubai this month and they were impressive.

This model has been demoed in various videos before doing things like running, co-ordinating movements, dancing, jumping, climbing stairs and even doing a backflip.

Jensen Huang recently warned that the ‘ChatGPT moment’ for robotics is coming soon. Whether it comes from China, South Korea, Tesla or on the battlefield in Ukraine is the big question.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.

The dip buyers in the Nasdaq have been steadily accumulating since early in the trading day. Initially, the Nasdaq fell into negative territory at the open as Nvidia went red but the chipmaker is now up 7.7% and the index is now 2% higher. Apple and Meta are also big winners today.

After the washout yesterday, the market figured out that cheap AI is a win for companies who are using AI rather than those who are selling AI, so we’re seeing more of a continuation of that.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.

• White House Press Secretary says the President has already put out statements on what he wants to see from Canada and Mexico on the border.

This is what I think Trump really wants from Canada and Mexico.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.