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☆ Russian volcano erupts, spewing out a vast cloud of ash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary Shiveluch erupts in Russian far eastAsh shoots up 20 km into the skyVast ash cloud in Russian far eastAviation warning issuedResidents trudge through ash driftsVLADIVOSTOK, Russia, April 11 (Reuters) - One of Russia's most active volcanoes erupted on Tuesday shooting a vast cloud of ash far up into the sky and smothering villages in drifts of grey volcanic dust, triggering an aviation warning around Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. The Shiveluch volcano erupted just after midnight reaching a crescendo about six hours later, spewing out a ash cloud over an area of 108,000 square kilometres, according to the Kamchatka Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Geophysical Survey. "The ash reached 20 kilometres high, the ash cloud moved westwards and there was a very strong fall of ash on nearby villages," said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Survey. He said the volcano would probably calm now, but that further major ash clouds could not be excluded. Scientists posted pictures of the ash cloud billowing swiftly over the forests and rivers of the far east and of villages covered in ash.

☆ Energy trader Gunvor posts record $2.36 bln net profit in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Ahmad Ghaddar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Companies Gunvor Group Ltd FollowLONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Gunvor Group posted a record net profit of $2.36 billion in 2022 with a strong performance across all trading desks, the energy trader said in a statement on Wednesday. Gunvor's rivals also had a bumper year amid high price volatility and as Russia's war in Ukraine reshaped global commodity flows, with Vitol and Mercuria previously posting record net profits of $15 billion and $2.98 billion, respectively. Gunvor said its trading volumes fell to 165 million tonnes in 2022 from 240 million tonnes the previous year, due primarily to reduced trading in natural gas, but expected volumes to rebound in the coming year. "The performance was broad-based across all geographies and all desks, including refining and shipping," Gunvor said. Last month, CEO Torbjorn Tornqvist told Reuters that it was considering whether to book a provision in the 2022 year.

☆ Russia's Sibur exports LPG to Africa, Middle East and Asia as EU cuts buying
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOSCOW, April 5 (Reuters) - Sibur, the largest producer and exporter of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Russia, redirected exports to Africa, the Middle East and Asia in the past three months, industry sources said. In the first quarter of last year, countries outside EU and UK accounted for only 18%, or 43,000 tonnes, of LPG shipped from Ust-Luga. Redirecting quite a few of Sibur's LPG cargoes from the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) trading hub outside Europe has significantly increased the round trip for gas carriers, ship-tracking data shows. To avoid higher freight costs Sibur and trader Trafigura have engaged larger vessels to ship LPG outside the EU, three LPG traders told Reuters. Sibur LPG cargoes arriving from Ust-Luga are being sold to Trafigura, which reloads them at Paldiski to MGC (medium gas carriers, about 22,000 tonnes) or LGC (large gas carriers, 44,000 tonnes) vessels, the LPG traders said.

☆ Exclusive: Russia shifts to Dubai benchmark in Indian oil deal - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationNEW DELHI, April 3 (Reuters) - Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and India's top refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS) agreed to use the Asia-focused Dubai oil price benchmark in their latest deal to deliver Russian oil to India, three sources familiar with the deal said. Rosneft's chief executive Igor Sechin said in February that the price of Russian oil would be determined outside of Europe as Asia has emerged as largest buyer of Russian oil since the West imposed progressively tighter sanctions on the export. Under the new deal, announced on March 29, Rosneft will nearly double oil sales to Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), two of the sources told Reuters. The European Union nations stopped buying Russian oil from Dec. 5 and the Group of Seven (G7) countries joined the EU in imposing a price cap on Russian crude of $60 per barrel. The move was aimed at cutting Russia's oil revenue while maintaining stability on the global oil market.

☆ Jeffrey Gundlach sees ‘red alert’ recession signal and Fed cutting rates soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Gundlach points to the Treasury yield curve, which is rapidly becoming less inverted, and indicative of an economic downturn on the horizon. "UST 2 Year versus 10 Year is now inverted 40 basis points. Was 107 basis points just a few weeks ago. Earlier this month, the gap between the 2-year Treasury yield and the 10-year Treasury rate widened to more than 100 basis points, marking the most severe inversion since September 1981. Short-term lending rates above long-term rates have accurately foretold looming recessions for the past 50 years.

☆ Factbox: The battle over Russia's crude and oil products
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MOSCOW, March 15 (Reuters) - In attempt to curb Russia's oil revenues, Western countries imposed sweeping sanctions against Russian crude oil and oil products. Below are the sanctions so far imposed, their impact and Russia's response:CRUDE OIL- The G7, the European Union and Australia stopped buying all Russian crude oil delivered by sea - or 2/3 of all EU imports of Russian crude - from Dec. 5. - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning the supply of crude oil and oil products from Feb. 1 to nations that abide by the cap. - Russia's crude oil loadings from its Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga and the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk were some 10% below the target for February. - In February the EU released from sanctions oil products which are produced from Russian oil outside the country and canceled the price cap for those oil products which are mixed with those from other countries.

Markets remained fragile, with European bank stocks tumbling over 5% on Monday and U.S. banks set to open lower (.SX7P). Markets also moderated their view on UK rates and were pricing in a roughly 75% chance of a 25 bps hike when the Bank of England meets next week. Goldman Sachs said on Sunday the banking stress meant it no longer expected the Fed to hike rates next week. "It's not going to want to go clattering in with another 50 (bps hike) and see some other financial institution getting hosed." A new Fed bank funding scheme aimed at addressing some of Silicon Valley Bank's apparent problems with losses in its bond portfolio is expected to further help with stability for banks and bonds.

☆ Technology Chiefs Seek Help Wrangling Cloud Costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Some chief information officers have turned to cloud management tools and established internal teams to oversee their cloud spending. Mr. Nimboorkar said the company has since built a dedicated team to manage its Amazon Web Services spending and invested in a third-party cloud spending management tool. Executives from all three cloud giants have said customers are optimizing or reining in their cloud spending, citing economic factors. Many of the best practices in cloud spending management have been codified by the nonprofit FinOps Foundation, which promotes cloud financial literacy and accountability, she said. That model allows Mr. Kanchi to wholly manage cloud spending, he said, but was only possible after UST figured out how to tag cloud usage by its various business units.

☆ Exclusive: Russia plans deep March oil export cuts -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MOSCOW/LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Russia plans to cut oil exports from its western ports by up to 25% in March versus February, exceeding its announced production cuts in a bid to lift prices for its oil, three sources in the Russian oil market said. Russia had already announced plans to cut its oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March, amounting to 5% of its output or 0.5% of global production. U.S. treasury officials have said the Russian decision to cut oil production reflects its inability to sell all its oil. "The export cuts appear to be deeper than the planned production cuts. Russian oil has traded below than level in recent weeks due to steep discounts and expensive freight rates.

☆ FTX's collapse wiped out $200 billion in the total value of the cryptocurrency market, and it hit retail investors in emerging economies the hardest
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX's downfall wiped out $200 billion from crypto's market capitalization last year, a new report revealed. Retail investors in emerging economies like India and Thailand were hit the hardest, per the Bank for International Settlements. Over 80% of retail participants using a crypto-trading app would have lost money from the market turmoil. "Notably, this share is even higher in several emerging market economies like Brazil, India, Pakistan, Thailand and Turkey. The token, which promised retail investors lofty yields in exchange for parking their assets, caused $450 billion of market value to vanish, per the BIS report.

☆ The SEC has accused fugitive Terraform founder Do Kwon of multibillion-dollar crypto fraud linked to TerraUSD's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The SEC has charged fugitive crypto boss Do Kwon and his company Terraform Labs with alleged fraud. The suit is linked to the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD which led to a $60 billion wipeout last year. Terraform was "simply a fraud propped up by a so-called algorithmic 'stablecoin'," the SEC alleges. The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused them of misleading US investors about the stability of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD, or UST, which was meant to be pegged to the US dollar. At the same time, the SEC is also charging Terraform and Kwon over the sale of unregistered securities, the markets regulator said.

☆ US SEC charges Terra founder Do Kwon with fraud
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Kwon founded blockchain platform Terraform Labs and was the primary developer of two cryptocurrencies whose demise roiled crypto markets around the world last year. The SEC filing did not say where Kwon was living. According to the SEC’s complaint, Terraform Labs and Kwon misled investors about the stability of UST, and claimed that the firm’s crypto tokens would increase in value. Terraform Labs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Globally, investors in TerraUSD and Luna lost an estimated $42 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

☆ SEC charges Do Kwon, Terraform with fraud in connection with Terra collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Do Kwon, co-founder and chief executive officer of Terraform Labs, insists that he is not on the run from South Korean authorities. Terraform Labs, the company that Kwon founded, is behind the collapsed cryptocurrencies terraUSD and luna, which combined were worth $60 billion before they crashed. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Terraform Labs and its CEO, Do Kwon, with fraud, alleging that they orchestrated a multibillion dollar "crypto asset securities fraud," the SEC said Thursday. The SEC alleges that Kwon marketed those assets, including those mAsset swaps and Terra, as profit-bearing securities, "repeatedly claiming" the tokens would increase in value. Kwon is wanted in South Korea for his involvement in the collapse of TerraUSD.

☆ U.S. SEC charges Terra founder Do Kwon with fraud
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Hannah Lang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Kwon founded blockchain platform Terraform Labs and was the primary developer of two cryptocurrencies whose demise roiled crypto markets around the world last year. TerraUSD, an algorithmic stablecoin supposed to maintain a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar, derived its value through another paired token called Luna. Both tokens lost nearly all their value when TerraUSD, also known as UST, slipped below its 1:1 dollar peg in May 2022. Prior to its collapse on May 9, TerraUSD had a market cap of more than $18.5 billion and was the tenth-largest cryptocurrency. Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Yields are popping again. Here's how investors can take advantage of that, according to the pros
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

How can investors ride on higher yields? Buy high-quality or short-term fixed income BlackRock Investment Institute said it likes high-quality credit and short-end government bonds "as interest rates stay higher for longer." "Fixed income finally offers 'income' after yields surged globally. "We believe that investors should hold around 2% of cash in their portfolios and should use short-term fixed income (anything below a 2-year maturity) as a proxy for cash," Alvarado added. Wells Fargo Investment Institute's tactical portfolios are allocating between 2% (for "aggressive growth investors") and 17% (for conservative income investors) to short-term fixed income.

☆ BlackRock-led investors in Aramco pipelines start bond sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

DUBAI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Investors in Saudi Aramco's gas pipelines network, led by BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), have begun a sale of dollar bonds in three tranches to refinance a multi-billion dollar loan that backed their stake purchase, a bank document showed. Initial price guidance was around 240 basis points (bps) over U.S. Treasuries (UST) for sukuk, or Islamic bonds, with a weighted average life (WAL) of 7-1/2 years, the document showed. Guidance was around 275 bps over UST for a tranche with a 12-year WAL and around 305 bps over UST for Formosa bonds with an 18-year WAL. The deal is expected to price late on Thursday. Reporting by Yousef Saba; editing by Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Western tankers ramp up Russian oil shipments under price cap
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Group of Seven nations (G7), Australia and the 27 European Union countries placed a price limit on Russian crude oil of $60 per barrel on Dec. 5. The cap allows non-EU countries to import seaborne Russian crude oil, but prohibits Western shipping and insurance companies from handling cargoes of the crude unless it is sold at or below that price. Russia has said it will not accept an oil price cap. GREEK RELIEFGreek-owned ships run by Greek management firms handled at least 21 voyages of Russian crude in January to a range of destinations. NGM said its tanker, the Ace, had discharged crude oil in Bulgaria.

☆ Oil falls on rate hike worries, Russian export flows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Rowena Edwards | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies OPEC+ seen sticking with oil output policy at Feb. 1 meetingInvestors watch for central bank rate hikesPositive China data caps weaknessLONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday as the prospect of further interest rate increases and ample Russian crude flows outweighed demand recovery expectations from China. March Brent crude futures fell by $1.01, or 1.19%, to $83.89 per barrel by 0920 GMT. The March contract expires on Tuesday and the more heavily traded April contract fell by 90 cents, or 1.07%, to $83.60. Interest rate decisions will shed some light on the prospects of economic and oil demand growth," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. Higher rates could slow the global economy and weaken oil demand.

☆ Asia absorbs big rise in Russian Urals crude exports - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

At least 5.1 million tonnes of Urals are being shipped from Russia's European ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk to Asia in January, the data show. As a result, Urals crude loadings bound for Asia in January could reach some 7 million tonnes, up by some 2 million tonnes from December, according to Reuters calculations. The rise in Urals shipments to Asia comes amid a general increase in Russia's seaborne oil supplies. Crude loadings from Primorsk and Ust-Luga this month are set to rise 50% from December to above 7 million tonnes - the highest in four years. Urals supplies for ship-to-ship transfers for further deliveries to Asia in January are expected to reach at least 1.4 million tonnes.

☆ Oil prices settle lower on stronger supply outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

OPEC+ has recently hinted it could impose deeper output cuts to spur a recovery in crude prices. Oil prices settled lower on Friday, making their weekly finish flat to lower, as indications of strong Russian oil supply offset better-than-expected U.S. economic growth data, strong middle distillate refining margins and hopes of a rapid recovery in Chinese demand. U.S. crude fell $1.33, or 1.6 %, to settle at $79.68, 2% lower on the week. "If Russian supply remains strong heading into next month, oil is probably going to continue to trend lower," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. He added that profit taking ahead of the weekend may also have driven prices lower.

☆ Russia ramps up January oil exports, India remains top buyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Around 70% of January cargoes of Urals oil are heading to India, according to traders' data and Reuters calculations. India has been a top buyer of the Russian grade for several months now, filling the void left by EU buyers. In December India's oil imports jumped to a five-month record amid active buying of the Russian oil. Russia loaded 4.7 million tonnes of Urals and KEBCO from Baltic ports in December, traders said and Refinitiv data showed. Last year Kazakhstan changed the name of the oil it exports via Russian sea ports, from Urals to Kazakhstan Export Blend Crude Oil (KEBCO), dissociating it from oil originating in Russia to avoid sanction risks and issues with financing.

☆ A crypto crash for big stablecoins is likely to send shudders through other financial markets too, a Cornell professor warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A crashed stablecoin could pose a threat to the wider financial system, a Cornell professor warned. The companies that issue stablecoins would have to redeem their government bond holdings if the digital tokens fail, Eswar Prasad said Thursday. "A large volume of redemptions, even in a fairly liquid market, can create turmoil in the underlying securities market," Prasad said. The turmoil hasn't yet spilt over into traditional financial markets, but financial watchdogs are worried that stablecoin issuers' government bond holdings pose that risk, according to Prasad. "The fact that we haven't had spillovers from this part of the financial ecosystem into traditional financial markets or into the real economy certainly seems to be suggestive of the fact that there is a firewall," he added.

☆ Why Linde shares dropped so much this week but why we still like it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

It's been a tough start to 2023 for shareholders of Linde (LIN). Russia freezing Linde assets First off, while U.S. markets were closed to observe the New Year holiday, Reuters reported Monday that a Russian court froze about $488 million of Linde assets. The legal action was at the request of a Russian joint venture that Linde stopped working on. Long story short, Linde was prepaid $1.8 billion for work on a project, and Russian energy giant Gazprom is suing Linde to get that money back. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Linde suspended business in Russia and announced plans to scale back operations.

☆ Russia freezes Linde assets worth $488 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

RusKhimAlyans, the joint venture which is 50% owned by Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM), asked the Court of Arbitration of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region to freeze Linde assets worth 35 billion roubles ($488 million) as a preventative measure. In 2021, Linde and Renaissance Heavy Industries signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Gazprom and its partners for the Ust-Luga gas complex. Linde notified the customer in May and June 2022 that it had suspended work under the contract due to European Union sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. RusKhimAlyans intends to apply to the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre to recover advance payment and losses worth around 972 million euros ($1 billion) and 7.6 billion roubles, according to the court filings. ($1 = 71.7830 roubles)($1 = 0.9360 euros)Reporting by Reuters Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ From TerraUSD's meltdown to the collapse of a $32 billion crypto empire, here is a full timeline of the crypto market's year in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Insider spoke with several crypto experts and charted the most influential events for the industry in 2022. The firm filed for insolvency in June, leading to widespread contagion. A month later, the firm filed for bankruptcy, listing $4.31 billion in assets and $5.5 billion in liabilities. The world's largest asset manager agreed to offer clients access to Coinbase's crypto trading and custody services. Radix's Epstein warned the industry must brace for more FTX contagion, but predicted crypto markets will rebound eventually.

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