Australian Financial Review (July 17)
“Oil has begun to drop back down this week to pre-invasion levels as traders brace for a sharp drop-off in consumption. But food price inflation remains stubbornly high.” Nevertheless, food prices remain largely off the radar. “The dramatic spikes in oil and mineral prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have distracted investors from the long-lasting and more dangerous impact of food inflation.” This has led BlackRock founder Larry Fink to sound the alarm on food inflation which also has profound geopolitical impacts.
Tags: BlackRock, Consumption, Dangerous, Distracted, Drop-off, Food, Impact, Inflation, Invasion, Investors, Larry Fink, Mineral, Oil, Pre-invasion, Russia, Spikes, Traders, Ukraine
Institutional Investor (January 4)
Researchers have uncovered “striking evidence of pre-disclosure spikes in options trading.” They “investigated informed trading activity in equity options prior to firms’ cybersecurity breach disclosures. We found pervasive directional options activity, consistent with strategies that yield abnormal returns to investors with private information.” There is a clear “cost of disclosure, and delayed reporting of breaches creates informed trading opportunities.”
Tags: Breach, Cybersecurity, Equity, Evidence, Options, Options trading, Pre-disclosure, Researchers, Spikes
Washington Post (June 12)
“Every three days or so, the United States suffers as many deaths from covid-19 as lives were lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The pandemic is emphatically not over: Some places are experiencing new spikes in cases, positive test results, hospitalizations and deaths…. The country is now a crazy quilt of local responses, with the virus surging in places and flattening in others, but still on the march overall.”
Tags: COVID-19, Deaths, Hospitalizations, Pandemic, Sept. 11, Spikes, Surging, Terrorist attacks, Test results, U.S. Suffers
Washington Post (May 13)
As countries around the world “explore ways to end stay-at-home orders, countries that had already opened up are closing down again after renewed spikes in infections. Lebanon on Tuesday became the latest country to reimpose restrictions after experiencing a surge of infections, almost exactly two weeks after it appeared to contain the spread of the virus and began easing up.”
Tags: Closing down, Infections, Lebanon, Open up, Restrictions, Spikes, Spread, Stay-at-home, Surge, Virus