Morning Wrap: ASX 200 futures higher + Why Macquarie is backing these 7 defensive stocks

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DEEPER DIVE

One for the bulls, and one for the bears

Today's deeper dive features a couple of broker notes. One is for the bulls and one is for the bears (although everything is relative, of course).

For the bulls, I've picked a recent note from Goldman Sachs which argues that a supply-led correction is coming for lithium prices in the near term. But signs of recovery in the Chinese EV market mean that year-end price forecasts will have risen to US$15,000 a tonne from US$11,000 per tonne.In this environment, that means a buying signal for the ASX-listed lithium producers."

The Australian lithium sector has continued to outperform global peers with narrowing multiple discounts, where the valuation gap having also narrowed," analysts wrote.

• Allkem (ASX: AKE) and IGO (ASX: IGO) are BUY-rated

• Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) and Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) are both NEUTRAL rated

• Core Lithium (ASX: CXO) and Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN) remain SELL rated

• In the case of Pilbara, Liontown, Core Lithium, and MinRes, Goldman argues that these ratings are hinged on spot prices remaining this high for at least another year - which they argue cannot be the case.