NEWSLETTER
Thursday / September 29Sep 29
Friday / February 4
New accusation against Russia
The United States said on Thursday it believes Russia will come up with a pretext to invade Ukraine. Washington accused Russia of formulating several options.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price and a Biden administration official said one of Moscow's options was a fabricated video of an explosion targeting the Russian people with equipment appearing to belong to Ukraine or allied countries.
"The video will be released to underscore a threat to Russia's security and to underpin military operations," the official said. "This video, if released, could provide (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the spark he needs to initiate and justify military operations against Ukraine."
According to TASS news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in response to reports that Russia will carry out false flag attacks by Ukraine, "This is not the first report. Something similar was also said earlier. But nothing has come out."
Bailey's comments
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey tried to calm markets after the central bank introduced its first consecutive rate hike in almost two decades.
Speaking to CNBC, Bailey said there will be a further increase in efforts to curb rising inflation. But he reiterated that such moves would be gradual.
“We have to go in steps,” Bailey said. “It’s right to take those steps gradually,”
The bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, raising the main interest rate to 0.5%, and raised interest rates back-to-back for the first time since 2004.
“In a world of very high uncertainty, which is what we’re in at the moment, there’s a strong case for going step by step,” he said, adding that he did not have a view on how many steps it might take.
Oil climbs
U.S. oil rose above $90 for the first time since 2014 on Thursday as demand for oil products surged as supply remained tight.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose more than 2% to as high as $90.23 per barrel. The last time prices were above $90 was October 2014. International benchmark Brent crude was up 1.7% at $91. Brent surpassed $90 on January 26.
The geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East are causing tension in the market.
Oil has rallied sharply since hitting record lows in April 2020, with WTI briefly trading in negative territory last year.
US stocks
Facebook parent company Meta lost more than $237 billion on Thursday. This is the largest one-day drop in US stock market history. Meta said Wednesday that Apple's privacy change to its iOS operating system last year will cut Facebook company's sales by nearly $10 billion this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 518.17 points, or 1.45%, to 35,111.16, the S&P 500 fell 111.94 points, or 2.44%, to 4,4777.44, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 538.73 points, or 3.74%, to 13,878.82.
Meta's poor performance led to a 0.9% loss on the Nasdaq, lowering the S&P 500's overall value by 0.6%, according to Reuters calculations. Stock markets experienced their worst daily declines since September 2020 and February 2021, respectively.
The United States said on Thursday it believes Russia will come up with a pretext to invade Ukraine. Washington accused Russia of formulating several options.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price and a Biden administration official said one of Moscow's options was a fabricated video of an explosion targeting the Russian people with equipment appearing to belong to Ukraine or allied countries.
"The video will be released to underscore a threat to Russia's security and to underpin military operations," the official said. "This video, if released, could provide (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the spark he needs to initiate and justify military operations against Ukraine."
According to TASS news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in response to reports that Russia will carry out false flag attacks by Ukraine, "This is not the first report. Something similar was also said earlier. But nothing has come out."
Bailey's comments
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey tried to calm markets after the central bank introduced its first consecutive rate hike in almost two decades.
Speaking to CNBC, Bailey said there will be a further increase in efforts to curb rising inflation. But he reiterated that such moves would be gradual.
“We have to go in steps,” Bailey said. “It’s right to take those steps gradually,”
The bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, raising the main interest rate to 0.5%, and raised interest rates back-to-back for the first time since 2004.
“In a world of very high uncertainty, which is what we’re in at the moment, there’s a strong case for going step by step,” he said, adding that he did not have a view on how many steps it might take.
Oil climbs
U.S. oil rose above $90 for the first time since 2014 on Thursday as demand for oil products surged as supply remained tight.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose more than 2% to as high as $90.23 per barrel. The last time prices were above $90 was October 2014. International benchmark Brent crude was up 1.7% at $91. Brent surpassed $90 on January 26.
The geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East are causing tension in the market.
Oil has rallied sharply since hitting record lows in April 2020, with WTI briefly trading in negative territory last year.
US stocks
Facebook parent company Meta lost more than $237 billion on Thursday. This is the largest one-day drop in US stock market history. Meta said Wednesday that Apple's privacy change to its iOS operating system last year will cut Facebook company's sales by nearly $10 billion this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 518.17 points, or 1.45%, to 35,111.16, the S&P 500 fell 111.94 points, or 2.44%, to 4,4777.44, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 538.73 points, or 3.74%, to 13,878.82.
Meta's poor performance led to a 0.9% loss on the Nasdaq, lowering the S&P 500's overall value by 0.6%, according to Reuters calculations. Stock markets experienced their worst daily declines since September 2020 and February 2021, respectively.
