Apple is now stepping up efforts to bring the Apple car to life sooner than previously planned, the rally on Sono Motors and Rivian fades, perhaps because Thomas Veillet unveiled his plans to launch his own electric car brand powered by wind by the end of next year! (This is a joke!)

The sentiment remains intact despite the prospects of an earlier and steeper rate hike in the US, and everyone is now waiting for the announcement of the next Federal Reserve (Fed) chair. But does it really matter at this point?

Elsewhere, Alibaba is hammered after the announcement of its Q3 results, the selloff in the Turkish lira looks to be done after the central bank cut the interest rates by another 100 basis points, while Bitcoin is approaching an important technical support.

Sono Group shares soar at their first day in Nasdaq, Rivian tanks 15% in a much-needed downside correction for the new comer.

US crude weakens below $80 per barrel on expectation that the US and China will tap into their strategic oil reserves to cool down the rising oil prices. On the other hand, Biden now wants the FTC to investigate the oil companies as he suspects them to play a role in high oil prices, which certainly cost the US President a good deal of popularity.

Elsewhere, the US debt crisis is being brought forward by Janet Yellen, who warns that the US could default on its obligations next month.

And finally, the Central Bank of Turkey (CBT) is expected to lower its interest rates by another 100 basis points but the markets are not happy with the direction the Turkish monetary policy is taking, as a tighter monetary policy is what the Turkey needs right now.

Rivian rallied another 15% yesterday, and Sono Motors is preparing to enter the arena. Is Sthe Sono Motors IPO the next bull run for tech investors? We will find out in a couple of hours.

Elsewhere, yesterday was all about the US retail health, and the sales data looked good at the first sight. But in reality, it was mixed. The US retail sales grew 1.7% in October, up from 0.8% printed a month earlier and better than 1.2% penciled in by analysts, however the jump was mostly because things costed more due to an inflation hovering around a three-decade high.

Still, the overall market sentiment was upbeat yesterday on strong US retail sales and an ok-ish meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. The two talked for 3.5 hours in a meeting with no concrete outcome. The major take was that the relationship didn’t get worse than what it already was.

In the FX, the US dollar continues gaining field against the majors, while euro is retreating at a sustained speed. The EURUSD slipped below the 1.13 mark on the back of diverging European Central Bank (ECB) and Fed expectations, where the Fed hawks are slowly getting in charge of the market while Christine Lagarde does everything to keep the hawks away. She reckoned at a speech on Monday that inflation proved more sustained that they expected, but she still expects it to fade next year. Let’s all hope that inflation would magically fade!

Joe Biden finally signed the massive US infrastructure bill and the news had a negative impact on cryptocurrencies, as the new tax-reporting requirements for digital currencies are part of the $550 billion infrastructure bill that Biden has just signed. Therefore, a good part of yesterday’s selloff is due to a mounting stress about regulation and taxation of cryptocurrencies.

In traditional markets, the risk sentiment is ok-ish, and the price action on index level is flattish, but inflation worries are everywhere, and there are rising rumours that higher interest rates wouldn’t even help taming inflation pressures!

In the FX, the euro continues weakening against the US dollar and the pound, and the upcoming European inflation figures could hardly boost the ECB doves more than the BoE’s.

Finally, Rivian is up by another 15%, but the present price action seems like a time bomb that could harm the bulls with no protection!

Elon Musk continues his one man show on Twitter, Rivian starts the week as the biggest Us carmaker after Tesla and the German solar electric carmaker Sono Motors will enter the arena this week.

Overall, the trading week starts on a mixed sentiment. The equity markets quickly got over last week’s inflation shocker from the US. Nasdaq rebounded as fast as it dived, as investors didn’t find a much better alternative to the stocks for hedging against inflation, while gold coughed to life, as the yellow metal flirted with $1870 an ounce for the first time in five months.

Activity on equity futures point at a flat start to the week. The better-than-expected industrial output from China, and rising hopes that the upcoming US-China meeting would lead to some positive news for international trade keeps investors cautiously optimistic this Monday.

But inflation remains on the back of every investor’s mind, as the Europeans and the Brits will be revealing their latest inflation figures this week, and following the blow number from the US last week, traders are not walking into the European inflation data light-hearted.

The NFT space is heating up with news that Universal Music is launching a Bored Ape NFT music band, that Coinbase is preparing to unveil an NFT trading platform and gaming companies like Electronic Arts and Epic Games also consider integrating NFTs in their product offering.

What’s the potential, why are NFTs gaining momentum in the corporate space, and what’s the potential?

Finally, I asked you, guys & girls, why you think Bitcoin is a good inflation play, and you answered!

US inflation advanced to 6.2% in October. That’s the highest level since more than three decades. More worryingly, it looks less and less transitory, because the rise is mostly due to the rise in cars prices, but also the rise in food prices (where you can argue it’s volatile), the rise in energy prices (which could be temporary indeed, but the fact is that we have a growing energy crisis going on across the globe right now), and most worryingly, due to the rise in rents.

The jump in US inflation, and the yields soured the mood in the equity markets. Nasdaq of course paid the highest price among the three major US indices. But overall, compared to the inflation shock, it’s not a dramatic decline. And activity in US equity futures was positive in Asia, Nasdaq futures are up 0.22% at time of writing, hinting that the moodiness in the market will likely be transitory, unlike inflation…

Goldman advises to buy the USD 5-year 5-year breakevens on a bet that inflation would accelerate, and that the Fed would do nothing dramatic to tame the inflationary pressures, but people actually prefer rushing to Bitcoin, as a new-age inflation hedge. As such, Bitcoin hit a fresh record yesterday, before easing.

I am not saying that Bitcoin is not a good inflation hedge, I am saying that we don’t have enough data in hand that proves that it is. So why are people rushing to Bitcoin?

Despite a limited risk appetite, Rivian made a great debut in Nasdaq. The company sold 156 cars so far and is public since a day only, but it is already worth more than GM and Ford. Why?!

Tesla is down another 12%, Roblox soars 42% and Coinbase drops 13% in the after-hours trading.

US indices didn’t renew record yesterday, and investors are awaiting for the latest US inflation data.

The Chinese inflation hit a 13-month high in October, and the producer prices topped 13%. And later today, the US inflation data will likely confirm a further overheating in American consumer prices last month, as well. A consensus of analyst estimates points that the consumer price index in the US may have advanced to 5.8% in October from 5.4% printed a month earlier.

Yet, the rising inflation doesn’t seem to sour the market mood as much as it did a couple of months earlier, as investors are well conscious that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will continue turning a blind eye on the problem, regardless of who will take the helm in February. Therefore, we may not see a negative market reaction to the overheating in inflation.

Still, Redditers are now looking for signs of a market rout through reverse repo operations, hoping that the GameStop frenzy would return thanks to a global equity selloff.

US indices continue flirting with all-time high levels following a surprise NFP read, the approval of Biden’s $550 billion spending bill and the discovery of an oral Covid treatment from Pfizer.

But inflation worries come to overshadow the Monday optimism in the run up to the most recent Chinese and US inflation data release due Wednesday, which should reveal a further rise in producer and consumer prices.

On the corporate end, the biggest news was of course Tesla, which tanked 5% yesterday, on speculation that Elon Musk would sell 10% of his Tesla stock following a positive answer to his Twitter poll, asking his followers whether he should sell stake to pay taxes.

The biggest mover of the after-hours trading was Roblox, which saw its share price soar more than 30% after it announced its revenue doubled in the third quarter. People spent 11 billion hours on Roblox, helping the company double its revenue in the third quarter. Roblox is seen as a serious competition for Facebook’s Meta.

And the metaverse race boosts appetite in chip makers. AMD rallied 10% yesterday on news that it won Meta as a chip customer, while Nvidia had recorded a similar jump last week, after Wells Fargo had revised its price target 30% higher to $320 a share. Now, Bank of Montreal lifts its price target by 50% to $375 a share.

Finally, I have been asked to dive into the British stocks. I like energy, mining and pharma stocks, and they look relatively cheap with a British pound that would simply not bounce higher.

Elon Musk is shaking Twitter with his suggestion to sell 10% of his Tesla stock to pay taxes. Investors are ready for a decent dive in the share price this Monday, but the latter could be opportunity to strengthen the bullish positions.

Else in the EV, Rivian IPO is one of the most expected events of the week, along with Chinese tech earnings, Coinbase and Disney Q3 results.

On the macro calendar, we will see how bad the inflation got in October, and whether it will do anything to the Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike expectations after last week’s speech from Jerome Powell that inflation is transitory.

Crude oil bounces back above the $80pb and has a clean path toward the $100pb, while gold drills above the $1800 per oz, with certainly a limited bullish potential.