Morning Brew January 3 2022

Good morning,

Happy New year to all of you

Equities had a strong year : the S&P 500 gained  27% and the  Nasdaq 100 41% . Biontech 205%,  Nvidia 140% but there were not only winners- Cathie Woods ARK Innovation lost 15.3%

Basically no analysts expect a negative year for the S&P 500 but trust in growth and trust in central banks despite the highest valuation since 1999.

We are currently near the high in most large indexes and early year sentiment will show if we break towards new all-time highs.

We are looking at a vey interesting year coming up with a number of possible themes,

• Inflation
• Elections
• Green transition and ESG
• Trade frictions
• Supply Chain disruptions
• Corona
• Elections
• Conflicts with Nato, Russia and China on Ukraine and or Taiwan.

Neither the Vix at 17.22 nor FX volatility (EUR 1 Month at 5.3%) seem to reflect that.

The USD Index trades below 96 in years open with EURUSD at 1.1345 and GBPUSD at 1.3500, both mid- range

Gold is once again near the resistance at 1835, currently trading at 1825 and silver 23.50 while currently trading at 23.15

The Turkish Lira hits the new year on the wrong foot after it just suffered the worst year in the last 20, losing 44% in value.

Bitcoin starts the new year positively with 1.5% gains, not 47.000

European Natural Gas has lost almost 60% in the last week of the year on warm weather and US Deliveries, Electricity has fallen from 400 to 235 Euro per Megawatt. With colder weather coming up and threats towards Russia, not least the shutdown of power plants in Germany, it will be interesting to see how that develops.

The Swiss National Bank spent CHF 2.8 billion on foreign currencies during the third quarter, less than expected, the Franc is at 1.0370 against the EUR.

Singapore`s economy grew by 7.2%, the fastest in 10 years.

Tesla exceeds expectations and delivers 308k vehicles in the last quarter of the year, the expectation was 263.

China Evergrande shares have been suspended from trading, pending a news release.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday told Ukraine's President the United States would  "respond decisively" if Russia further invades Ukraine.

Key economic news today are a load of PMI, Sweden at 8:30, France at 9, Germany 9:55, EU at 10 and the US at 15:45.

Trade safely