Market Update

The Russian economy is poised to collapse this year after the U.S. and its European allies hit the Kremlin with a slew of crippling financial penalties over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Russian manufacturing activity plunged in March, contracting at the sharpest pace since May 2020 as businesses confronted a …

Crypto markets continued a second day of slide on Friday as bitcoin hovered above pivotal support at $40,000 in European hours, data show.Bitcoin bounced to $40,100 early Friday, after losing 2.9% Thursday. Some analysts are still bullish on the future prices of the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is trading near …

The European Union has started drafting its proposal for an embargo on Russian oil imports as its latest response to the war in Ukraine, the New York Times reported, citing Brussels officials and diplomats.The embargo will most likely be introduced in a gradual way, similar to the planned Russian coal …

The size of China’s economy was $17.7 trillion in 2021, according to official figures, so 5.5 percent growth would mean about $1 trillion more in 2022. Using growth in 2019 as a basis for comparison, business investment in China would need to contribute about 1.5 percentage points toward the 5.5 …

The GBP/USD pair is gaining up some 0.18% in the week amidst a thin liquidity trading session. A buoyant US dollar and risk-aversion weighed on the British pound in the week. GBP/USD Price Forecast: To remain downward biased but a double bottom looms.The British pound remains defensive, trading below the …

Since the outburst of the war in East Europe, markets have massively increased their expectations for key US interest rates. This can be seen, among other things, in the rise in the yield on the 2-year US Treasury bond by around 0.9%% in just a few weeks.The basis for this …

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced on Friday that it will cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks by 25 basis points (bps) effective from April 25.The PBOC further noted that it will cut RRR by an additional 25 bps for some smaller banks and noted that …

Japan’s Industry Ministry said on Friday it will release six million barrels of oil from privately owned reserves, as part of its contribution to the second round of coordinated withdrawals from reserves led by the International Energy Agency to cool crude prices. Japan will release the amount of oil, which …

Kremlin aide Maxim Oreshkin was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying on Friday that Russian imports fell sharply in March due to logistical restrictions and the withdrawal of Western companies from the country. He expected the decline to reach “tens of percent”. The Russian current account surplus is …

Italy’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 6.5 percent in March 2022, the highest level since July 1991, from 5.7 percent in the previous month and below the initial estimate of 6.7 percent. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 1 percent, accelerating from a 0.9 percent increase the previous month …