POWER: "GERMAN POWER FOR JAN. 9 SETTLES AT EU 121.53 /MWH: EPEX AUCTION"-BBG

• On the commodity front, Gold is unchanged and continues to trade inside a tight range, for now. The long-term trend condition remains bullish and the Oct 31 - Nov 14 bear leg appears to have been a correction. Moving average studies are in a bull-mode position, highlighting a dominant uptrend. Resistance to watch is $2721.4, the Nov 25 high. Clearance of this level would highlight a bullish short-term development. Key support to monitor is $2536.9, the Nov 14 low.
• In the oil space, a bearish threat in WTI futures remains present and recent weakness reinforces this theme. A continuation down would open $65.74, the Oct 1 low, and $63.90, the Sep 10 low and key support. For bulls, a stronger reversal to the upside would instead refocus attention on the key short-term resistance at $77.04, the Oct 8 high. Initial firm resistance to watch is unchanged at $72.41, the Nov 7 high.

Fresh session lows for S&P 500 & NASDAQ 100 e-minis following news that Nvidia is being probed by the Chinese authorities on anti-monopoly grounds.

• The tech giant is now indicated 2.1% lower pre-market.
• E-mini moves are relatively limited at this stage.
• Contracts had already traded away from session highs as optimism surrounding the dovish tweak in the Chinese monetary policy stance proved short-lived.
• Marginal outperformance in the DJIA e-mini since the headlines, given relative sensitivity to tech.

The BOE has released two statements on the BOE's money market tools ILTR (PRA statement here) and a discussion paper on the transition to a repo-led operating framework (available here). As part of this, the Bank has opened a consultation - with a deadline for feedback of 31 January 2025.

• From Q2 (proposed date) the reserves available in each auction ILTR will increase from GBP25bln to GBP30bln. The Bank notes that this would mean an increase in the maximum ILTR stock available to GBP720bln.
• "The Bank will improve predictability of allocation for SMF participants during the early stages of transition by increasing the quantity supplied at minimum spreads by 40%–100%, to £7 billion–£10 billion per auction. This is up from £5 billion today. This would increase the stock of reserves available at minimum spreads from £120 billion today to £168 billion–£240 billion."
• "The Bank is still reviewing how the total quantity of reserves supplied in the ILTR is allocated to different collateral sets."
• "Further changes to the ILTR to ensure it is appropriately calibrated to supply a larger stock of reserves for the transition to a repo-led framework will take effect in 2025. Further details on these changes will be announced by the Bank in due course once responses to the Discussion Paper have been taken into consideration."
• Note that Deputy Governor Ramsden is speaking at 13:00GMT today on the BOE's toolkit - so he is likely to elaborate on today's announcements.
• There should be no immediate market impact from these operations - but they increase the Bank's role in a demand-led framework going forward and should help to cushion any small liquidity bumps in the market.