🇺🇸 The S&P Regional Banking ETF broke through its 2024 high resistance intraday before slipping slightly back underneath it.

23 cents beneath it, to be precise. If $KRE is able to regain that level, it will have only the 2022 all-time high level overhead.

$KRE is up about 16.9% against the broader market ($SPY) since Halloween.

📈 I N T E L R U N N E R 📈

🇺🇸 The Lithium ETF ($LIT) is still cookin'.

It's now up 67.25% in a little over seven months since its breakout was noted here. That's a 57% gain against $SPY over the same period.

🟢Electric vehicles continue to drive total battery demand (which saw a 25% increase last year).

🟢Expanding even more quickly at around 44% last year are battery energy storage systems (BESS), which are the only way to make wind & solar potentially functional.

🔴Lithium carbonate prices in North Asia surged 56% last year from their January 2025 lows.

🔴Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the world's largest battery manufacturer, has had operations at their large Jianxiawo mine shut down since August due to an expired mining license.

🔴This is viewed as part of China's push to limit the opportunity cost of overcapacity production. The Jiangxi provincial government mandated 30-day production halts for 12 lithium converters in July 2025, for another example.

🧪 INTELRUNNER 🧪