By Tyler Durden, submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance On my latest podcast, I had a chance to try and channel some intellectual horsepower in a fruitless attempt to keep up with Epsilon Theory’s Ben Hunt about a wide range of topics, not the least of which was Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine. Ben shed a light on […]

By Tyler Durden, Following days of intense pressure from the U.K. government, UK energy giant BP Plc said it will exit its 19.75% stake in Russian oil company Rosneft, a dramatic reversal after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Western nations are trying to inflict as much economic pain as possible on Moscow. BP had held its stake […]

By Tyler Durden, Following a full-court press by western nations, the handful of European holdouts – those most reliant on Russian energy supplies and continued Russian capital flows, such as Germany, Hungary, Italy and Cyprus – who have been adverse to expelling Russia from the SWIFT electronic payment-messaging system, are one by one folding on […]

By Marlize van Romburgh, As Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on Wednesday, it sent shockwaves around the world and threatened to undo decades of relative peace and stability in Europe. Ukraine’s fragile economy and small technology startup scene are also threatened by the turmoil. Ukraine’s startup industry is small, though a number of notable companies and […]

By Tyler Durden, Three buyers of Russian crude oil have been unable to open letters of credit from Western banks to cover their purchases, four Reuters trading sources said on Thursday following the Russian attack on Ukraine. As Julianne Geiger writes at OilPrice.com, banks are understandably hesitant to extend credit for purchases of Russian crude, given the current […]

By Tyler Durden, Mortgage applications collapsed 13.1% week-over-week, the worst drop since the heart of the COVID lockdown crisis in March 2020… As MBA reports, the Refinance Index plunged 16% from the previous week and was 56% lower than the same week one year ago. But most notably, the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index tumbled 10% from one […]

By Tyler Durden, Some quick thoughts from JPMorgan’s trading desk this morning. The Russia/Ukraine situation dominated weekend headlines and culminated with Putin declaring 2 regions in Ukraine as independent and then signing an order to move in troops. US sanctions were quick to follow but, so far, only apply to those regions in Ukraine and […]

By Tyler Durden,   While not directly impacted by the sharp crisis escalation in Ukraine or fears of multiple rate hikes by the Fed, Chinese tech shares suffered their worst two-day drop since July following renewed fears Beijing may roll out more restrictions for private enterprise. Shares of China’s tech giant, Tencent, sank 5.2% on […]

By Brian Newar, The investment fund will be the first offered by a bank in the country and is expected to include a type of crypto index and ETFs. Kookmin Bank is preparing to become the first bank in South Korea to offer crypto investment products to retail investors. KB announced on Feb. 21 that it had […]

Global Intel Hub — NFTs are the hot new market in Crypto which is puzzling traders who don’t get art because each one is unique, and you can’t make a market with millions of unique contracts.  OpenSea has risen to the top of the NFT marketplace pile and is a sought after company in the […]