Shares of Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) are trading lower today and now rest 6% in the red at $1.23 apiece.
Despite no sensitive news today, investors have sold off Core Lithium shares at a volume roughly 60% that of its 4-week average.
In wider market moves, both the S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining Index (ASX: XMM) and the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) are down by nearly 3% today.
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What's up with the Core Lithium share price today?
The Core Lithium share price has gyrated this week amid a selection of sensitive updates released by the company.
That includes the signing of contracts for crushing services at its Finniss Lithium Project and obtaining environmental approval for its underground mine at the project.
ASX lithium players are also coming off a high base from yesterday's trading session where several names came out on top after a week of mild volatility.
Unsurprisingly, the volatility has emerged amid a slowdown in the price of lithium, which had been racing to continuous new heights up until late March.
"Lithium carbonate prices in China fell to 462,500 yuan/tonne in early May, the lowest in two months on strong supply and lower demand," Trading Economics showed.
Prices have since taken a small step back, levelling off back down to February 2022 levels.
Not only that, but reports show that investors may be shying away from the metals and mining sector(s), suggesting a potential flow-on effect to many names like Core Lithium.
US-based commodity ETFs saw net outflows of $556 million in April for instance, whilst global commodity and precious metals ETFs each realised similar trends.
Nevertheless, today's loss extends Core Lithium's decline to more than 16% over the last month of trading.
This year to date, the Core Lithium share price has held a 108% gain, bringing the upside for the past 12 months to more than 382%.
