Everything Mike Dolan and the ROI team are excited to read, watch and listen to over the weekend.<\/p>\n
From the Editor<\/p>\n
Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n Hello Morning Bid readers!<\/p>\n The last full trading week of 2025 was a rocky one, but it looks to end on a positive note \u2013 just like the year itself \u2013 as central bankers, deal makers and some head-scratching U.S. inflation data keep everyone from putting on their out-of-office messages just yet.<\/p>\n Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher on Thursday, as Micron Technology soared 16%<\/a> on a blockbuster profit forecast, and core U.S. CPI inflation in November rose by only 2.6% year-over-year,<\/a> the slowest pace since March 2021. This soft report increased expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts early next year.<\/p>\n However, almost no economists think this inflation figure is accurate, with some dubbing it a \u201cSwiss Cheese\u201d report, due to data collection issues caused by the government shutdown.<\/p>\n Investors also received U.S. November payrolls numbers this week<\/a>. The economy added 64,000 jobs, above consensus expectations, after the massive drop in October, and the unemployment rate ticked up to a four-year high of 4.6%. But, again, caveats abound, as the 43-day government shutdown forced the Bureau of Labor Statistics to alter its methodology for this calculation.Central banks were in the spotlight once again this week. The Bank of Japan on Friday lifted interest rates 25 basis points to 0.75%,<\/a> the highest level in thirty years, with a hawkish steer from Governor Kazuo Ueda. The yen weakened, however, as it will take far more than modest tightening to guarantee the Japanese currency escapes the intervention “danger zone.”<\/a>The Bank of England moved in the opposite direction on Thursday, cutting its policy rate to 3.75% from 4%<\/a> \u2013 the sixth cut since August 2024.While the European Central Bank kept rates steady at 2.0%<\/a> on Thursday, it signalled a likely end to its easing cycle.Dealmaking certainly doesn’t look to be easing anytime soon. Warner Brothers Discovery on Wednesday rejected Paramount\u2019s $108.4 billion \u201chostile takeover\u201d bid.<\/a> Then on Thursday came the announcement of a $6 billion all-stock deal for a merger between Trump Media and Google-backed TAE Technologies<\/a>. That was followed by news that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has signed binding agreements<\/a> to give control of U.S. operations to a group of investors, including Oracle.Meanwhile, global benchmark Brent crude futures plunged by nearly 3% on Tuesday<\/a> to below $59, their lowest since early 2021, amid growing optimism that a peace deal was in sight in Ukraine.Prices then briefly rebounded after President Donald Trump said on Wednesday in a post on his Truth Social platform that he had ordered a blockade<\/a> of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. But crude was trading lower again early on Friday.Despite all this geopolitical drama, the real driver of prices in the months ahead is likely to be far more prosaic: a spike in global oil supplies<\/a>, both on land and at sea.Speaking of drama, BP surprised energy industry-watchers with the announcement that Meg O’Neill<\/a> would replace current CEO Murray Auchincloss, becoming the company\u2019s first outsider chief executive. This appointment offers the bruised $90 billion British oil company three clear strategic choices for moving forward: build, buy or be bought.<\/a>Staying in energy markets, Asia’s imports of U.S. crude oil, coal and liquefied natural gas are on track to decline this year<\/a> despite President Trump’s efforts to boost shipments as part of his trade strategy.At the same time, Japan has cut fossil fuel electricity generation<\/a> to the lowest levels in more than a decade in 2025, thanks in large part to an ongoing recovery in nuclear power output.For more commodities news, check out Reuters Open Interest<\/a> to find out what is the real star on the London Metals Exchange<\/a> right now (hint, it\u2019s not copper) and which agricultural trends<\/a> to watch out for next year.<\/p>\n Morning Bid will be off for the next two weeks, but we\u2019ll be back in January. In the meantime, check out some reading, listening and watching recommendations from the ROI team.<\/p>\n I\u2019d love to hear from you, so please reach out to me at anna.szymanski@thomsonreuters.com, opens new tab<\/a> ., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n This weekend, we’re reading…<\/p>\n MIKE DOLAN, ROI Financial Markets Editor-at-Large: The Dawn of Everything: The New History of Humanity, opens new tab<\/a> by David Graeber and David Wengrow challenges much of what we think we know about the origins of civilization, including the creation of farming, cities and democracy. Definitely worth a read over the holidays!RON BOUSSO, ROI Energy Columnist: I highly recommend Andrew Ross Sorkin\u2019s latest book, 1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History., opens new tab<\/a> It\u2019s a brilliantly written and thrilling account of the historic crash and its causes. The story has a lot of disconcerting similarities with what we\u2019re seeing in markets today.<\/p>\n ANDY HOME, ROI Metals Columnist: “The War Below”, opens new tab<\/a> by my Reuters colleague Ernest Scheyder is a great primer on what makes some metals “critical” and how the West lost out to China in the race to develop them. Ernie also does a deep-dive on the green-on-green environmental clash between those who see critical minerals as a vital route to decarbonisation and those who resist the new mines needed to produce them.<\/p>\n We’re listening to…<\/p>\n JAMIE MCGEEVER, ROI Markets Columnist: TS Lombard economists Dario Perkins and Freya Beamish, who are always worth paying attention to, discuss their off-consensus views for 2026, opens new tab<\/a> and give their takes on who will replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in May.<\/p>\n And we’re watching…<\/p>\n ANNA SZYMANSKI, ROI Editor-in-Charge: If your New Year\u2019s resolution is to be more productive, make sure to subscribe to the newMorning Bid video podcast, opens new tab<\/a>. Mike Dolan and other Reuters journalists will fill you in on all the key stories moving markets in roughly five minutes every day.Want to receive the Morning Bid in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for the newsletter here<\/a>. You can find ROI on the Reuters website, opens new tab<\/a>, and you can follow us on LinkedIn, opens new tab<\/a> and X., opens new tab<\/a>Opinions expressed are those of the authors. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, opens new tab<\/a>, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.<\/p>\n Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n Anna Szymanski is Editor in Charge of Reuters Open Interest, an essential source for data-driven markets and finance commentary. Anna overseas Reuters commentary on financial markets, commodities, macroeconomics, and other key topics of interest to markets professionals. Anna joined Reuters from Oaktree Capital Management, where she was Senior Vice President and Senior Financial Writer, managing the Oaktree Insights program. Anna is a CFA Charterholder. Follow Anna on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything Mike Dolan and the ROI team are excited to read, watch and listen to over the weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[82519,85421,2786,82703,95658,82758,85715,85716,85718,79,84893,95659,82517,84370,72110,94778,53515,1802,10503,95660,83626,84897,82538,82546,83395,82556,82549,82541,82550,82776,83396,84041,83397,83391,83393,84146,82531,82777,82547,82539,82557,82540,83394,82548,82551,85719,82702,83115,83116,179,18,55396,82578,83371,4893,95661,82520,82522,32356,82503,87582,82516,9207,45748,85214,88436,87209,94704,95662,19,95663,95664,84368,82765,17,11203,83122,88437,84440,83123,95665,82524,82507,45751,85212,29741,82508,1540,84142,64512,94777,84457,83366,107,83127,82518],"class_list":{"0":"post-241936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-amers","9":"tag-anlins","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-asxpac","12":"tag-basmtl","13":"tag-bisv","14":"tag-bnk","15":"tag-bnks","16":"tag-bsvc","17":"tag-business","18":"tag-cdm","19":"tag-cdv","20":"tag-ceeu","21":"tag-cen","22":"tag-ch","23":"tag-clm","24":"tag-cn","25":"tag-com","26":"tag-covid","27":"tag-cppr","28":"tag-cru","29":"tag-dbt","30":"tag-destabx","31":"tag-destbnx","32":"tag-destc","33":"tag-destd","34":"tag-destdnp","35":"tag-deste","36":"tag-destfun","37":"tag-destg","38":"tag-destgro","39":"tag-destm","40":"tag-destmtl","41":"tag-desto","42":"tag-destoil","43":"tag-destortao","44":"tag-destousbsm","45":"tag-destpge","46":"tag-destpsc","47":"tag-destrast","48":"tag-destrbn","49":"tag-destrnp","50":"tag-destsof","51":"tag-destu","52":"tag-destucdptest","53":"tag-destz","54":"tag-easia","55":"tag-eci","56":"tag-eco","57":"tag-economy","58":"tag-eire","59":"tag-emea","60":"tag-emrg","61":"tag-enr","62":"tag-eu","63":"tag-eub","64":"tag-europ","65":"tag-ezc","66":"tag-fin","67":"tag-fins","68":"tag-frx","69":"tag-gb","70":"tag-gdp","71":"tag-gen","72":"tag-gfin","73":"tag-gvd","74":"tag-hea","75":"tag-humdis","76":"tag-hyd","77":"tag-ie","78":"tag-igd","79":"tag-infdis","80":"tag-int","81":"tag-intag","82":"tag-ireland","83":"tag-jp","84":"tag-mce","85":"tag-metl","86":"tag-mktrep","87":"tag-mplt","88":"tag-mrng-us","89":"tag-namer","90":"tag-news1","91":"tag-nrg","92":"tag-plcy","93":"tag-pmi","94":"tag-pol","95":"tag-potus","96":"tag-rep","97":"tag-roi","98":"tag-rulesroi","99":"tag-stx","100":"tag-topicmarkets-commodities-energy","101":"tag-us","102":"tag-wash","103":"tag-weu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n