Sunday: March 23rd 2025
The conversations between Russia and Ukraine seem to be moving forward with the intervention with the U.S.. Yet, there are no major concessions being made. In any peace-deal that may or may not be signed, the Kremlin continues to hold strong certain points which doesn't really point to there being a true peace deal being made anyways. Russia is headstrong about annexing large swatches of Ukrainian land permanently, will not allow European peacekeepers to step foot onto Ukrainian soil after a deal is made. Apparently, the peace deal would have to guarantee Ukraine's neutral status (i.e. no NATO for you Ukraine). It's clear that Russia is not willing to let Ukraine leave this war any stronger than it was previously...
Enter Trump. To some, an angle for Trump to manipulate this situation for his benefit is a fruitful thought. One wouldn't need to leap too far to imagine a massive minerals deal being struck, depriving Ukraine from massive wealth, while losing land to Russia and being left with no other strong alliances post war; leaving Ukraine weak. Well, if Vladimir couldn't end the war, why can't and American fill their pockets too??
Putin Agrees to Pause Attacks on Ukraine Energy Infrastructure in Call With Trump
Friday: March 21st 2025
The cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which was signed 2 months ago had multiple phases. The first phase was conducted successfully; this stage resulted in the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,700 Palestinians who were held in Israeli prisons. The second phase was meant to see the release of all remaining hostages from both sides, and conducting the talks to end the war. Somewhere along those lines, the discussions fell through and fighting has resumed in Gaza.
Today, Israel has held firm that they want the release of the remaining 59 hostages (at least 24 are believed to still be alive) or ground insurgence of troops in Gaza will continue. One of the remaining Hamas hostages is an American-Israeli captive, Edan Alexander, whom is a priority for the Trump administration to be released.
Today, Musk is receiving a "top-secret briefing" on China from the Pentagon. Musk, who relies on China for car manufacturing and mineral inputs in its batteries, can be positioned to capitalize on information not known by its competitors. This is also true for Musk's SpaceX which competes for military contracts.
In the Data Center space, the race for affordable data storage is running hot. There is a tug-a-war for the dominant technique to storing data: Hard-Drive storage or Solid-State storage. Solid-State is like the drive in a personal computer, whereas Hard-Drive is like the CD-ROMs of the past, but much larger and much more powerful. As of now, Hard-Drive's are in control of the market, delivering a cheaper cost-per-terabyte than Solid-State's. But this may change as years go by as investment in Solid-State storage is projected to overtake Hard-Drive's by the end of this decade.
DJIA: 41,763.40
S&P: 5,630.73
Nasdaq: 17,519.84
Oil (WTI): 68.35
ICE NGX (T-1): 2.23
Israel’s Defense Minister Threatens Permanent Occupation of Parts of Gaza
Elon Musk Arrives at Pentagon for Discussions About China
Lasers, Magnets and the $40 Billion Fight to Store the World’s Data
It's time for Canadians to challenge the American domination of the LNG space
Thursday: March 20th 2025
AECO prices are still depressed as producers are sitting on over-supply anticipating the egress impacts of LNG Canada to ramp up full blow. The first shipment out of Kitimat is tentatively expected for this July.
DJIA: 41,795.26
S&P: 5,646.92
Nasdaq: 17,586.06
Oil (WTI): 67.29
ICE NGX (T-1): 2.17
Canada PM Carney to call for April 28 election on Sunday, Globe and Mail reports
AECO Prison Blues - Western Canadian Gas Prices Stuck Behind Bars, Even After Winter Price Surges
Thursday: March 13th 2025
U.S. aluminum company Alcoa's COE Bill Oplinger said that 20,000 direct U.S. industry jobs would be cut and as many as 80,000 indirect U.S. jobs to be eliminated due to the tariffs on Canadian imports. "It's bad for American Workers" stated Oplinger at the recent BMO Global Metals and Mining conference. Currently, America is short 4 million metric tones of aluminum annually and this deficit is largely backfilled by Canadian and Mexican imports. U.S. domestic production of aluminum in 2024 totaled approximately 678,000 metric tones.
It's tough to argue the positives to a 25% tariff specifically on aluminum since roughly 80% of the US consumption of Aluminum in 2024 was imported from foreign countries. The pop cans, the automobiles and appliances that rely on aluminum as integral inputs will see a theoretical increase of 25% in item costs. Unless domestic production will be heavily subsidized and companies will be paid bursaries of some sort, the likely impact will be lost jobs and higher final costs to consumers.
DJIA: 41,280.05
S&P: 5,994.45
Nasdaq: 17,598.56
Oil (WTI): 67.69
ICE NGX (T-1): 2.03
Algoma Steel Warns of Effects of Tariffs on Operations
U.S. to Restore Military Support to Ukraine After It Agrees to Cease-Fire
Wednesday: March 12th 2025
Inflation data in the U.S. for February actually looked pretty good. It came down from 3.0% in January to 2.8%, but economists aren't celebrating yet. Most of the tariffs being enacted were not in place for this latest reading, and thus, will take further (1 or 2) readings to be fully represented in the data. In terms of food inflation, Eggs are the largest driver of increases in February. Prices have rises due as a result of bird flu in the U.S..
The 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico have taken effect. All goods except for Energy products and potash (includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. potash is primarily used in fertilizers). Canada has reacted to the U.S. enacted tariffs by placing their own tariffs on American