Market News Review, Treasuries, Copper Prices, World Bank

• Rising Treasury yields cast doubt on stock market gains. Fresh signs of protracted inflation have sent bond yields to their highest levels in a year. Jerome Powell's remarks next week will be scrutinized by investors for how long the Fed is willing to wait before cutting interest rates.
The debate at the Fed is beginning to shift from how many times to cut interest rates this year to whether to cut them at all in 2024 year.

• Some investors are even talking about the possibility of raising rates. In just under a week, e-commerce megastar Amazon (AMZN) is set to release its first-quarter 2024 financial results.
Analysts are optimistic, forecasting earnings to nearly triple year-over-year to $0.85 per share.

• A century of rising demand for copper. Copper prices have outperformed gold and silver this year as traders bet on growing long-term demand for the industrial metal for artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. When "the apple fell on the heads of the world's commodity traders and end consumers, they are only now waking up to the reality of increased demand in the future," said John Caruso, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.
Future copper demand looks "increasingly inevitable" thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles and the "decarbonization revolution in general," he said. "Copper will undoubtedly play an integral role in this transition."

• This week, 175 companies in the S&P 500 report quarterly results. Which makes this the busiest week of the US earnings season overall.
But amid the excitement, most of Wall Street's attention will be on the two biggest companies that could make or break any quarter for the overall markets - Apple and Amazon.com.

• US bonds. Goldman Sachs and Citadel Securities are leading a group of major trading firms backing Howard Lutnick's BGC Partners in its bid to launch CME Treasury futures trading to break the existing monopoly. The move could boost competition and expand investment opportunities in the $21 trillion U.S. government debt market.

• World Bank warns that energy and commodity prices are no longer keeping a lid on inflation
Despite the global economic slowdown, commodity prices are expected to remain high, with the World Bank forecasting them to fall by 3.8% per year until 2025, which is still higher than pre-pandemic levels. Inflation remains rampant due to high commodity prices, especially energy and raw materials needed for desalination processes. The World Bank estimates that a temporary decline in inflation could be followed by sustained price increases due to tight supply chains and continued strong demand.

• Elon Musk flew to China on an unannounced visit to meet with Premier Li Qiang. The businessman wants to negotiate with Beijing on the deployment of software for fully autonomous cars, as well as the transfer of data from China outside the country. The latter is needed to use the information collected on Chinese roads to train the autopilot.