Good morning,

We’re heading into a big Friday with markets trading cautiously ahead of the December Jobs Report and a possible Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s tariff authority.

Equity futures are slightly positive, but it’s a classic pre-data stall.

The geopolitical front eased a bit overnight.

President Trump canceled a second strike on Venezuela, saying Washington and Caracas are “working well together.” That took some heat out of yesterday’s crude rally.

But the bigger story is his claim that U.S. companies will invest “at least $100 billion” in Venezuela’s oil sector. He’s meeting with oil executives today, and the market wants to see what guarantees the White House is actually offering.

Meanwhile, in the metals world, Glencore and Rio Tinto have reportedly resumed megamerger talks — a deal that would reshape global mining supply and pricing power. Copper is bouncing after its selloff earlier this week, helped by firmer demand expectations and the mining chatter.

This ties directly into our ongoing thesis on structural copper tightness and the AI/electrification cycle, which is pushing long-term demand higher.

Finally, the dollar is firmer ahead of NFP, the yen is sliding amid dovish BoJ reports, and gold is drifting as index rebalancing continues. Today’s data will determine whether this week’s defensive mood persists into next week or flips into a risk-on bounce.

We’ll break it all down at 8:45 AM ET on Market Masters:

• What the jobs report really means for the Fed path
• Why Venezuela is now a strategic energy pivot
• The Glencore-Rio Tinto mining deal and what it signals for copper
• Dollar strength, yen weakness, and today’s volatility setup

And as always, The Runner…

I’ll see you in 15 minutes.

Stay positive,

Garrett Baldwin