Financial Markets The first two trading days of the year were mixed. 2025 opened with strong selling action, and then recovered somewhat on Friday. The main stock market indices were little changed, with the S&P500 and the NASDAQ 100 losing 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively. The small cap index (Russel 2000) gained 1.1% for the week. This week, trading volumes were still lower than average, which is typical for the holiday season - next week, trading should progressively go back to normal. The metals were quiet - gold and silver gained 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively. Gold is on the edge of the current trading channel and is starting to look more and more bearish. If there is some momentum left to gold, it should move up soon, other wise we favor the downside - 2500$/oz is the likely target/support in the near term. Silver is looking weaker and might fall to 28$/oz in the near future. WTI rised 5.5% to 74$ and should continue in the 67-75$ range in the near future. Bitcoin went up to...