A single word is all that is needed to sum up the year that Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) shares have had in 2022 thus far: Crazy. It's been a crazy year for this ASX 200 lithium share, no two ways about it.
This ASX lithium stock started 2022 at a share price of 63 cents. Today, it has closed at 95 cents a share, up a pleasing 51% year to date. However, Core Lithium was trading far higher just a few months ago.
Back in April, this company hit an all-time high of $1.68 per share. That means that even though Core Lithium shares are up 51% year to date, they are also down more than 40% from that high watermark.
The craziness continues if we dig even deeper.
The incredible volatility that Core Lithium shares have endured over the year so far has extended into recent weeks. Over June alone, Core Lithium lost 31.4% of its value.
So what might be next for this eye-catching share now that we are in July?
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What's next for the Core Lithium share price?
Well, as you might have gathered from that rundown of Core Lithium's 2022 performance, this is not an easy share to make predictions on.
But much of the woes this company has seen over the past month seem to have been sparked by concerns over the price of lithium itself.
Early last month, we covered how ASX broker Goldman Sachs declared "the battery metals bull market … over for now". Goldman stated that it sees "prices on a downward trajectory over the course of the next two years, with a sharp correction in lithium …".
This bearish statement sent Core Lithium shares tumbling, among many others.
Lithium stocks have also been hit by the weakness of the ASX share market in general. June was not a pleasant month for ASX shares, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) losing 8.9%.
Lithium shares tend to be placed on the pointy end of the 'risk-on' spectrum of ASX shares by investors. Thus, they often (but not always) outperform the market on good days, but underperform on bad days. So it's perhaps no surprise to see that Core Lithium had a terrible month.
But if the market has a cracking July, we could well see a significant bounceback in the Core Lithium share price. So if an investor is a keen follower of Core Lithium shares, it might be worth keeping an eye on lithium prices themselves, as well as what the broader market is doing, over the rest of the month.
At the current Core Lithium share price, this ASX lithium stock has a market capitalisation of $1.64 billion.
