Choppy action continues in the New Year with markets reacting to reports throughout the week. Stocks were down midweek with news of an increase in private employment and a decrease in jobless insurance claims. Oddly, stocks then rose with Friday’s report on December non-farm payroll and unemployment figures, which didn’t square with expected forecasts. In view of the Fed’s recent minutes, a moderate hawkish position would entail keeping rates where they are for longer throughout 2023, as opposed to raising interest rates significantly.

Stock Tickers to follow:

• Cash
• Gold (GLD)
• Oil stocks: SLB, VLO

As long as jobs-related reports do not firmly signal where the economy is going, the markets will continue to be reactive. A cash position can help mitigate this volatility. The US dollar index, as we reported last week, is still hovering between 105 and 103. 

Gold (GLD) took a hit, but as long as interest rates remain in a holding pattern, gold should gain against a flat or even weakening US dollar.

Oil stocks remain optimistic in the short-term with an upper limit on prices due to the imminent recession and a warmer than usual winter in the Northern hemisphere. Longer-term optimism remains speculative. 

SLB is the biggest gainer, which analysts are predicting will post earnings of $0.69 per share before its next report on January 20. VLO did not perform as well recently but is expected to be up 152% year-over-year by its next report on January 26.

Crypto Tickers to follow:

• SOL
• TON

Is Solana dead post-FTX collapse? SOL got a boost midweek, gaining 36%. This is due to renewed interest in the platform’s viability with the launch of the Bonk meme coin (which has been up and down). This may be enough to help Solana retain its share of the NFT marketplace.

Sebastian Purcell has provided a moonshot report on TON, which is a token for the social media app, Telegram. Telegram looks poised to create a viable base layer platform, but “TON presently lacks an app ecosystem that could ensure long-term survivability.” Potential growth ranges from 2x to 20x in the next bull run.

DEXs to follow:

• GLP (gmx.io)
• MLP (Madmex.io)

We reported last week that in this wintery climate with little liquidity floating around, decentralized spot and perpetual exchanges are worth watching. Both GMX and MLP enable users to trade BTC, ETH and other cryptocurrencies. Traders can leverage as much as 30%. To recap, GLP and MLP are liquidity provider tokens which can be minted from other assets in order to enable token holders to get a lion’s share of the platform fees without requiring any staking.

-- Todd Mei, PhD

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