In this video, Dave shares a long-term analysis of the Ten-Year Treasury Yield, breaks down how the shape of the yield curve has been a great leading indicator of recessionary periods and weaker stock prices, and outlines the chart he’s watching to determine if early 2025 will look a great deal like early 2022.
This video originally premiered on January 6, 2025. Watch on StockCharts’ dedicated David Keller page!
Previously recorded videos from Dave are available at this link.
African governments have criticized a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron in which he said that some leaders showed “ingratitude” for the deployment of his nation’s troops in the Sahel region in battling Islamist extremism.
Macron told French ambassadors at a conference in Paris on Monday that Sahel nations – beset by civil conflicts and violent extremism – only remained sovereign because of the deployment of French forces.
Macron also dismissed the notion that French troops had been expelled from the Sahel, an area that sits just below the Sahara Desert, as Paris’ influence on its former colonies wanes.
“We had a security relationship. It was in two folds: One was our commitment against terrorism since 2013. I think someone forgot to say thank you. It does not matter, it will come with time,” Macron said at the conference.
“Ingratitude, I am well placed to know, is a disease not transmissible to man.”
Macron’s comments were denounced by Chad’s foreign affairs minister, Abderaman Koulamallah, who accused the French leader of showing “a contemptuous attitude towards Africa and Africans.”
The French leader blamed the exit of his country’s forces from the region on successive coups.
“We left because there were coups d’état. We were there at the request of sovereign states that had asked France to come. From the moment there were coups d’état, and when people said ‘our priority is no longer the fight against terrorism’… France no longer had a place there because we are not the auxiliaries of putschists. So, we left.”
In recent years, French troops have withdrawn from Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali following coups in the West African nations where anti-French sentiment has become rife. They are also preparing their exit from Chad, Ivory Coast and Senegal. French forces similarly left the Central African Republic in 2022 after deploying there in 2013 following a coup that sparked a civil war.
“None of them would be a sovereign country today if the French army had not deployed in the region,” Macron said, adding: “My heart goes out to all our soldiers who sometimes gave their lives and fought for years. We did well.”
Koulamallah said in a statement that, “France has never endowed the Chadian army in a significant way nor contributed to its structural development.” The Chadian minister added: “In 60 years of existence, marked by civil wars, rebellions and prolonged political instability, French contribution has often been limited to its own strategic interests, with no real lasting impact on the development of the Chadian people.”
Chad announced in November it was ending its defense cooperation with France to reassert its sovereignty.
Macron insisted in his address on Monday that France’s influence was not in decline in Africa but that the nation was only “reorganizing itself” on the continent.
His stance was rejected by Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko who explained in a statement Monday that Senegal’s decision to close all foreign military bases, including those of the French, “stems from its sole will, as a free, independent and sovereign country,” adding there were “no discussions or negotiations” with the French.
“Let us note that France has neither the capacity nor the legitimacy to ensure Africa’s security and sovereignty,” Sonko stated.
Activists in Africa were also outraged over Macron’s comments.
“Macron’s statement that African leaders should be grateful for France’s military interventions, claiming that West Africa’s sovereignty owes its existence to the French army, reeks of revisionism and intellectual dishonesty and moral bankruptcy,” Togolese writer and social activist Farida Bemba Nabourema wrote in a lengthy post on X.
“This paternalistic rhetoric, which infantilizes African nations as incapable of self-governance, is deeply rooted in the racism that justified colonization in the first place and continues to nourish neo-colonialism today,” Nabourema added.
Russian military support has become an increasingly sought-after alternative by some Sahel nations who have moved on from their former Western partners.
Junta-led Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have since signed military partnerships with Moscow, receiving contingents of Russian military instructors from the shadowy mercenary group, Wagner.
Wagner forces have also reportedly arrived in Equatorial Guinea where they are tasked with protecting its authoritarian leader President Teodoro Obiang, mirroring the activities of the Russian mercenaries in the neighboring Central African Republic where they have evolved into the dominant foreign force.
U.S. Steel and the Japanese firm that had sought to acquire it are suing the Biden administration after the president announced he was blocking a proposed deal for the iconic American manufacturer.
U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel said in a release Monday that President Joe Biden ‘ignored the rule of law’ to gain favor with United Steelworkers, the union representing many of U.S. Steel’s employees, when he announced Friday he would not allow the acquisition to go through.
Separately, U.S. Steel and Nippon said they were also suing the president of the union, David McCall, as well as the head of an Ohio-based rival mining firm, Cleveland-Cliffs, accusing them of illegally coordinating to undermine the transaction.
Nippon Steel had proposed a $14 billion deal to buy U.S. Steel, but the agreement, which U.S. Steel executives favored, became mired in a national security review by a Treasury Department committee that assesses foreign ownership proposals.
Ultimately, the committee failed to agree on whether Nippon ownership posed a security risk, and it asked Biden for a final decision. In announcing his veto of the deal, Biden said shifting the firm out of American hands would undermine critical supply chains and put jobs at risk.
The Treasury committee, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland are also named in the suit.
“A committee of national security and trade experts determined this acquisition would create risk for American national security,’ a Biden administration spokesperson said in an emailed statement. ‘President Biden will never hesitate to protect the security of this nation, its infrastructure, and the resilience of its supply chains.’
McCall, the steelworkers union boss, said in a statement that he was reviewing the suit.
‘By blocking Nippon Steel’s attempt to acquire U.S. Steel, the Biden administration protected vital U.S. interests, safeguarded our national security and helped preserve a domestic steel industry that underpins our country’s critical supply chains,’ he said.
Lourenco Goncalves, the president, chairman and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, accused U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel of trying to ‘play the blame game.’
‘Today’s lawsuits against the U.S. Government, the USW, and Cleveland-Cliffs represent a shameless effort to scapegoat others for U.S. Steel’s and Nippon Steel’s self-inflicted disaster,’ Goncalves said in a statement.
‘Cleveland-Cliffs and the USW were not the only ones who recognized the adverse national security implications of this acquisition. This deal drew instant bi-partisan opposition, including from President Trump, who has vowed multiple times that he would block the deal,’ Goncalves added.
After the suits were announced Monday, President-elect Donald Trump, who had expressed opposition to the deal while he was campaigning last year, posted on his Truth Social platform: “Why would they want to sell U.S. Steel now when Tariffs will make it a much more profitable and valuable company. Wouldn’t it be nice to have U.S. Steel, once the greatest company in the World, lead the charge toward greatness again? It can all happen very quickly!”