Morning Bites (part 2)

💍Hong Kong jewellery and watch sales surged 23% YoY in January, rebounding from the revised 5% YoY drop in December. Meanwhile, the category's revenues were the highest since January 2020. According to Rapaport, this growth reflected the recent opening of the Hong Kong border with Mainland China, as well as improved labour market conditions and the earlier start to the Lunar New Year. In our view, this might slightly support the demand for rough diamonds, which is still affected by the unfavourable macroeconomic conditions globally

🔋Lithium Americas has begun construction of its Thacker Pass lithium project, after the US federal court rejected environmental claims, the company reports. To recap, the project aims to achieve 80kt LCE production in two phases. During the Phase 1, the miner is set to achieve 40kt LCE output by 2H26 (~2% of global Li supply in 2026F), which is in line with growing consumer interest for EVs

#diamonds #lithium
https://metals-wire.com:3000/news-reports