Oil Price (March 10)
“While no one can say for certain what the trajectory of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will be, the economic warfare that is going on alongside it is very likely to destroy the current global trading system.” A fix could take a while. It took roughly 75 years to regain “stability” and “interconnection,” after the “worldwide trading system” was last destroyed with the outbreak of World War 1.
Tags: Conflict, Destroy, Economic warfare, Global trading system, Interconnection, Russian-Ukrainian, Stability, Trajectory, WWI
Washington Post (March 9)
“Stock analysts are riding with the bull despite rumblings from the bear.” On Monday, “U.S. stocks slumped the most in 17 months… but the ‘buy the dip’ mentality isn’t dead… and stock analysts are part of the reason it’s likely to stick around awhile. Research on individual stocks is as bullish as it has been in two decades by some measures.”
New York Times (March 9)
“A week after a chorus of Western executives from Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and other companies… pledged to pull their companies out of Russian ventures, it appears the turbulence for Russia’s energy industry has only begun.” The industry now looks poised to undergo a “wrenching reworking…. because Russian oil and gas have suddenly become toxic to many buyers.”
Tags: BP, Energy, Exxon Mobil, Gas, Oil, Pledged, Reworking, Russia, Shell, Toxic, Turbulence, Ventures, Western, Wrenching
Bloomberg (March 8)
“When it’s just the yield curve narrowing, or oil jumping, or stocks falling into a correction, maybe you can hold off on panicking over a recession. When all three happen at once, the argument gets stronger that it’s time to take the threat seriously.”
Tags: Argument, Correction, Falling, Jumping, Narrowing, Oil, Panicking, Recession, Serious, Stocks, Stronger, Threat, Yield curve
Financial Times (March 7)
“Bond markets are flashing a warning signal about the growth prospects for the global economy, just as central bankers prepare to tackle soaring inflation with higher interest rates. The gap between long-term and short-term government borrowing rates in big developed economies has narrowed drastically since mid-October.” This flattening of the yield curve might prove “an ominous sign for the durability of the rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Tags: Pandemic
Wall Street Journal (March 7)
“Oil and gas revenue makes up about half of the Kremlin’s budget and is critical to financing Vladimir Putin’s bloody war on Ukraine.” The trouble is “sanctions on Russian energy could also harm the world economy and especially Europe,” which depends on Russia for a quarter of its oil and 40% of its natural gas. “Unless the West is willing to grasp this nettle, the world will continue to finance the Putin war machine.”
Tags: Budget, Critical, Economy, Energy, Europe, Financing, Kremlin, Natural gas, Oil, Putin, Revenue, Sanctions, Ukraine, War
Market Insider (March 7)
With prospects rising for Russia’s “first major foreign bond default in over 100 years,” economist Stephen Roach has cautioned that a “sovereign debt default would not be an isolated financial-markets incident, and instead, it had the capacity to spill over into emerging markets and even affect China.” After downgrading Russia’s credit to junk territory, Moody’s further “downgraded Russia’s credit rating to CA – one notch above ‘default.’” Meanwhile, Russian stocks have been kicked out of global indexes by MSCI and FTSE Russell, with MSCI calling Russian stocks “uninvestable.”
Tags: Uninvestable
WARC (March Issue)
“The cost of search, social and retail media advertising grew by double digits in the final three months of 2021…. Search cost-per-click (CPC) saw the largest rise, increasing by 23% year on year to $0.71 in Q4 2021.” Moreover, the trend in rising “advertising spend and costs looks likely to continue in 2022.”
Tags: 2021, 2022, Advertising, Cost, CPC, Double digits, Media, Q4, Retail, Search, Social, Spend, Trend
The Week (March 4)
“An advertisement seeking 30 women to drive bullet trains drew more than 28,000 female applicants in Saudi Arabia last week, revealing massive demand for jobs as the kingdom loosens restrictions on women’s employment.”
Tags: Advertisement, Bullet trains, Demand, Employment, Female applicants, Jobs, Kingdom, Loosens, Restrictions, Saudi Arabia, Women
Wall Street Journal (March 3)
“How in the world did Europe leave itself so vulnerable to Vladimir Putin’s energy extortion?” Less than two decades ago, EU nations “produced more gas than Russia exported. Yet European production has plunged by more than half over the last decade” while Russia “happily filled the supply gap.”
Tags: Energy extortion, EU, Europe, Export, Gas, Plunged, Production, Putin, Russia, Supply gap, Vulnerable
