Here are five things you need to know this morning:
Natural gas price spikes in Europe: The price of natural gas in Europe has jumped to its highest level in more than a year, just shy of 50 euros per megawatt-hour. That’s about double what the going rate was as recently as February, and the catalyst seems to be Russian gas deliveries across Ukraine being halted after the expiry of a transit contract between the two warring nations. Russia is a major supplier of natural gas to Europe, so limiting supply at a time of peak demand during cold winter months has many feeling anxious. Officials are doing what they can to stress that there is plenty of gas in storage, but it’s playing out in the market price. Last week, Russia turned off the gas taps to Moldova because of a dispute over unpaid bills.
Crypto assets rallying again: If you don’t like the weather, the old joke goes, just wait a day. And the same can seemingly be said for the price of Bitcoin, which after rocketing higher for the weeks following Donald Trump’s election in November, all of a sudden turned bearish in late December. Bitcoin traded as his as US$108,000 and as low as $92,000 in the last two months of 2024. But bitcoin and other crypto-linked assets have quietly been moving higher for several days in a row now, with the price of bitcoin up for three days in a row now, up almost two per cent premarket this morning, to more than $96,000.
U.S Steel shares in focus after Nippon Steel concession: We’ll be watching the news around U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel today after the latter offered Uncle Sam a veto over any planned steel production cutbacks. The concession is to grease the wheel and get their planned takeover of the U.S. steelmaker approved, which is looking like an increasingly uncertain outcome during the current U.S. administration and less likely in the one that’s coming. Shares in U.S. Steel popped late Tuesday on news of the offer, but the deal is still anything but certain.
U.S. dockworkers set to resume talks ahead of Jan. 15 deadline: A crippling strike at ports up and down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. was averted in October, when the two sides hammered out a short-term deal to get things moving through the end of the year. But that squabble is soon to re-emerge, as the short-term pact giving workers a 62 per cent wage hike over six years didn’t tackle the thornier issue of automation is set to expire on Jan. 15. Bloomberg is reporting that the two sides will re-open talks next week, but when things left off, they were still far apart on what level of automation the International Longshoremen’s Association was comfortable with. On the campaign trail, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump voiced support for the workers, but it remains to be seen how full-throated that support will be should his new administration be met with a widespread work stoppage that would slow imports to a crawl.
Cameco says production suspended at Kazakhstan mine: Canadian uranium miner Cameco says production has been suspended at the Inkai mine in Kazakhstan, a joint venture it has 40 per cent control over along with state-run Kazatomprom. The entity, known as JV Inkai, failed to receive an extension of the timeline to submit its updated project documentation by the end of the year 2024. Once that deadline passed without extension, Kazatomprom orders the JV to plan for a halt of operations to avoid being in breach of local laws, a move that Cameco says came as a surprise. “We will be seeking further clarification on how this transpired, as well as the potential …production and financial impacts,” Cameco said.