European corporate leaders who once feared missing out on the Trump boost are now reassessing their strategies as Germany’s election winner, Friedrich Merz, signals a shift in fiscal policy that could supercharge Europe’s growth. The long-standing outperformance of the U.S. economy and stock market had made America the preferred destination for European investment, but that calculus is beginning to shift.

At the end of 2024, the S&P 500 Index surged nearly 25%, helped in part by Trump’s election victory, which fueled expectations of deregulation and economic acceleration. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects U.S. growth at 2.7% this year, compared to a sluggish 1% for the eurozone, and Germany entered a recession.

China’s commodity complex is sending a signal that is as much about finance as it is about factories: investors are treating industrial metals as the most liquid way to express macro views on growth, inflation hedging, and geopolitical fracture, and they are doing so at a scale that is beginning chinese exchange specific rather than purely global.

Trading activity on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) has surged into territory that looks less like routine hedging and more like a broad-based speculative migration into raw materials. In December, turnover across SHFE’s six base-metals futures contracts, together with gold and silver, reached about 37.1 trillion yuan, over $5 trillion, more than triple the level of a year earlier.

Niger has initiated a temporary suspension of new mining licenses as the first step in an audit of its mining sector, with the goal of enhancing government revenue. The country, known for being one of the top global producers of uranium, has decided to review existing mining licenses in addition…