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<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="728" height="485" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/VWGGGHRVGFNNBKICEKKB2G2CXI.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-419501" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/VWGGGHRVGFNNBKICEKKB2G2CXI.jpg 728w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/VWGGGHRVGFNNBKICEKKB2G2CXI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/VWGGGHRVGFNNBKICEKKB2G2CXI-135x90.jpg 135w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A bitcoin representation is seen in a file photo, in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BTC.CM=/">Bitcoin</a>&nbsp;marched higher to end the week, with its price breaching the $47,000 level for the first time in almost two years.&nbsp;



On Friday the flagship cryptocurrency rose more than 4% to $47,307.00, according to Coin Metrics, a level not seen since March 2022.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/ETH.CM=/">Ether</a>&nbsp;advanced 3% to $2,511.75.&nbsp;



Bitcoin trading volume and sentiment have been suppressed over the past two weeks as investors worried about big outflows from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/">Grayscale Bitcoin ETF</a>&nbsp;and a deeper pullback in its price ahead of an expected rip higher this year. Nevertheless, bitcoin’s now up 10% for the week, while ether is on track for a 9% gain.



Positive sentiment appears to be returning now as the GBTC outflows have slowed. Additionally, momentum from the S&amp;P 500 briefly touching 5,000 Thursday for the first time ever may be spilling over to crypto.



“The recent price appreciation of bitcoin could be attributed to recent inflows into the spot ETFs, the prospect of the halving around the corner, which tends to generate optimism from investors as prices often shoot&nbsp; up after, and general market momentum,” said Sylvia Jablonski, CEO and chief investment officer at Defiance ETFs. “In the past, there have been parallels between bitcoin and tech stocks. Lower rates, falling inflation, earnings growth and indices like the S&amp;P 500 hitting groundbreaking levels certainly improve risk sentiment for the asset class.”



The move pulled crypto equities higher in premarket trading. Crypto exchange&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/COIN/">Coinbase</a>&nbsp;and bitcoin proxy&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MSTR/">Microstrategy</a>&nbsp;each gained more than 6%, while the biggest miners,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/RIOT/">Riot Platforms</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MARA/">Marathon Digital</a>, rose 10% and 11%, respectively.



Bitcoin is nearing a key resistance level, which Fairlead Strategies earlier this week identified at $48,600. Hitting that level would open the door to a new all-time high, the firm said.



On Thursday, bitcoin&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/08/bitcoin-rises-above-45000-its-highest-level-in-almost-a-month.html">passed $45,000 for the first time since Jan. 12</a>, the day after U.S. bitcoin ETFs began trading. The cryptocurrency has struggled to maintain its pre-ETF highs but has avoided falling to as low as $36,000, as expected. It has not fallen below $39,000 in the past month.

FILE PHOTO: Bitcoin representation is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-453207" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER.jpeg 929w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A truck makes its way over the Victoria Falls bridge, spanning over the Zambezi River, linking Zambia and Zimbabwe, in Livingstone, Zambia, on Sunday, May 8, 2022. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



KoBold Metals, a California-based metals exploration company backed by billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said that it has discovered a vast copper deposit in Zambia.



The rare discovery of a large-scale copper deposit could help in the global race to secure a supply of materials critical to the energy transition. Copper is in high demand due to its use in renewable energy and electric vehicles.



A spokesperson for KoBold Metals told CNBC on Monday that the company believes its Mingomba copper project in Zambia “will be one of the world’s biggest high-grade large copper mines.”



“It is Kakula-scale in size and grade,” KoBold Metals President Josh Goldman said in a statement shared on the firm’s social media site X. The giant Kamoa-Kakula copper mine is situated just across Zambia’s northern border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian mining company founded by billionaire magnate Robert Friedland, owns nearly 40% of the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine. It has described the complex as “the world’s fastest-growing, highest-grade [and] lowest carbon major copper mine.” It produced nearly 400,000 metric tons of copper last year.



Zambia is Africa’s second-largest copper producer after the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



KoBold Metals says it uses artificial intelligence to create a “Google Maps” of the Earth’s crust to help find new deposits of copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.



The Silicon Valley startup’s investors include U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Norwegian energy giant Equinor, the world’s largest mining group BHP and Breakthrough Energy, a climate and technology fund founded by Bill Gates in 2015.



Some of Breakthrough Energy’s backers are Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.



KoBold Metals has said it aims to start producing copper at its mine in Zambia within 10 years, in a project that could have significant economic ramifications for the African nation.



“What they’ve discovered is quite phenomenal,” said Jito Kayumba, special assistant to the Zambian president on economic, investment and development affairs.



“There is a lot that we as Zambians can look forward to in terms of the announcement of their mine development which should be coming on stream,” Kayumba said in a video posted on social media site X on Monday.



As part of a rapid uptick in demand for critical minerals, the IEA has warned that the current global supply falls short of what is needed to transform the energy sector, given a relatively high geographical concentration of the production of many energy transition elements.



Most rare earth reserves are located in China, while Vietnam, Brazil and Russia are also major rare earths countries based on reserve volume.

107368870-1707125204692-gettyimages-1244583117-ZAMBIA_COPPER

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos-backed startup discovers large-scale copper deposit in Zambia

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-453156" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed.jpeg 929w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a press conference following the release of the Fed’s interest rate policy decision at the Federal Reserve in Washington, U.S., January 31, 2024.  Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell vowed in an interview aired Sunday that the central bank will proceed carefully with interest rate cuts this year and likely will move at a considerably slower pace than the market expects.



In a wide-ranging interview with “60 Minutes” after last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Powell expressed confidence in the economy, promised he wouldn’t be swayed by this year’s presidential election, and said the pain he feared from rate hikes never really materialized.



“With the economy strong like that, we feel like we can approach the question of when to begin to reduce interest rates carefully,” he told the news magazine’s Scott Pelley, according to a transcript CBS released.



“We want to see more evidence that inflation is moving sustainably down to 2%,” Powell added. “Our confidence is rising. We just want some more confidence before we take that very important step of beginning to cut interest rates.”



As he did during a Wednesday news conference, he said it’s unlikely the FOMC will make that first move in March, which futures markets had been anticipating.



The meeting concluded with the committee holding its benchmark borrowing rate in a range between 5.25%-5.5%. In its post-meeting statement, the committee said it would not be cutting “until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving” to the 2% target.



Markets have been making aggressive bets on how many cuts the Fed would make this year. Current pricing is pointing to five quarter-percentage points reductions, though Powell backed the FOMC’s December “dot plot” grid of individual members’ estimates that pointed to just three moves.



“We’ll update [the outlook] at the March meeting. I will say, though, nothing has happened in the meantime that would lead me to think that people would dramatically change their forecasts,” he said, noting that “the time is coming” for cuts but perhaps not yet.



Powell was broadly optimistic about the economy, noting that inflation, while still above the Fed’s target, has moderated while the jobs market is strong. Nonfarm payrolls accelerated by 353,000 in January, the Labor Department reported Friday. The biggest risk, he said, is likely from geopolitical events.



During the Fed’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in August 2022, in the early days of the rate-hike cycle, Powell warned that the policy tightening would cause “some pain.” However, that hasn’t been the case, he said in the “60 Minutes” interview.



“It really hasn’t happened. The economy has continued to grow strongly. Job creation has been high,” he said. “So really the kind of pain that I was worried about and so many others were, we haven’t had that. And that’s a really good thing. And, you know, we want that to continue.”



In another matter, Powell reiterated that neither he nor his colleagues would be swayed by political pressure during this presidential election year.



“We do not consider politics in our decisions. We never do. And we never will,” he said.

107367289-17067309052024-01-31t193846z_1251250014_rc26t5afcbas_rtrmadp_0_usa-economy-fed

Powell insists the Fed will move carefully on rate cuts, with probably fewer than the market expects

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="462" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917-820x462.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-453152" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917-820x462.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917.jpeg 929w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Gold and silver bars of various sizes lie in a safe on a table at the precious metals dealer Pro Aurum in Munich. Sven Hoppe | Picture Alliance | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



Gold and silver are expected to climb further in 2024 on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates, UBS forecasts.



“We are expecting gold to be pushed higher by a Fed easing. Also this comes with a weaker dollar” said the investment bank’s precious metals strategist Joni Teves, who expects the metal to hit $2,200 per ounce by the end of the year.



Gold prices tend to have an inverse relationship with interest rates. As interest rates dip, gold becomes more appealing compared to alternative investments like bonds, which would yield weaker returns in a low interest rate environment.&nbsp;



In turn, lower rates weaken the dollar, making gold cheaper for international buyers, driving up demand.



While there is still much uncertainty on the timing and extent of rate cuts, UBS maintained its expectations for the Federal Reserve to ease policy. Last week, the Fed announced its decision to leave rates unchanged in January, on top of shooting down hopes of a rate cut in March. 



The bullion’s appeal as a safe haven asset has risen since Israel’s war with Hamas began on Oct. 7, which contributed to gold prices notching an all-time high of $2,100 an ounce last month.



“We do think investors will start to build allocations to gold in an environment where there is a lot of macro uncertainty [and] geopolitical risks,” said Teves.



Prospects for gold’s “poorer cousin” are also optimistic, with silver on course to “really, really shine.”



Silver is not as common of a geopolitical and safety haven compared to gold, which partly explains why it has underperformed gold in the last few years, the strategist said. But the tables could turn in its favor when the Fed eases.



“In a scenario where the Fed is easing, we think silver can do really well. It tends to outperform a move in gold,” Teves said. “Silver has been underperforming gold quite a lot. So there is a lot of catching up to do and I think the move could be quite dramatic,” she added.



Silver’s performance is tied closely to the health of the overall economy due to its wide industrial applications. The precious metal is commonly incorporated in the manufacturing of automobiles, solar panels, jewelry and electronics.



Gold last traded at $2,052 per ounce, while silver was priced at $22.69 per ounce.

107233200-1682914795655-gettyimages-1248428651-20090101230317-99-987917

Gold prices to hit $2,200 and a ‘dramatic’ outperformance awaits silver in 2024, says UBS

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Why Direct-To-Consumer Companies Like Casper, Allbirds And Peloton Are All Struggling

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Bitcoin breaks above $47,000 for the first time since March 2022

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Powell insists the Fed will move carefully on rate cuts, with probably fewer than the market expects

Gold prices to hit $2,200 and a ‘dramatic’ outperformance awaits silver in 2024, says UBS

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