Crimea’s dented investor confidence, but the price of gas suggests there’s no need to worry March 18, 2014 This morning, Germany's ZEW survey demonstrated how investor sentiment can take a knock over international environment worries. The country’s ZEW survey falling for a second month in a row to 46.6 in March, from February’s 55.7. But ZEW officials have said that ongoing problems in Crimea have played a part in the drop, which could [...]
UK exposure to Ukraine crisis extremely limited March 4, 2014 The UK is facing only limited exposure to the crisis in Ukraine, according to a note from London-based consultancy Capital Economics. The UK's direct trade with Ukraine is close to insignificant, with UK exports to Ukraine amounting to just 0.2 per cent of the total in 2012. UK banks' are also relatively safe from exposure [...]
Gazprom cancels discount on gas supply for Ukraine March 4, 2014 RUSSIAN-state owned utility Gazprom will strip Ukraine of its discount for gas prices from April, it said yesterday, as chief executive Alexey Miller claimed the country owes debts of $1.529bn (£920m) to his company. Gazprom says it has not received payments for gas sent in January, adding to huge debts accumulated debt over the past [...]
Why Europe’s options for diversifying its energy supplies are strictly limited April 21, 2014 CONFLICT in Ukraine has added another major geopolitical risk for energy markets in 2014. Gazprom’s cancellation of gas price discounts in Ukraine at the start of April significantly raises the risk that Russia will use short-term gas supply cuts for political leverage. While a short-term disruption this spring or summer would have muted market impact [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 17 March 2014 March 17, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Big banks put forex bonuses on hold Barclays, Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland have frozen bonuses across swaths of their foreign exchange trading teams pending internal investigations into possible manipulation of key currency benchmarks. The cash and share bonus suspensions are targeted on the wider team rather than just the traders under [...]
Warning that fuel prices could rise by 5p per litre March 3, 2014 ENERGY prices on the world markets jumped yesterday as turmoil in Ukraine pushed panicked traders to snap up supplies. Petrol prices could rise by as much as five pence per litre, the RAC warned, as Russia’s actions threaten to squeeze the supply of energy. Such a jump would reverse much of the fall in prices [...]
A trade war with Russia would be Lehman Bros 2 March 3, 2014 MORALITY and foreign policy make uneasy bedfellows. In 1997, when Tony Blair called for an ethical foreign policy, the country cheered; 17 years later, any politician calling for such idealism would be laughed out of town. After 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, the Arab Spring and so on, a battlehardened realism is the order of the [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 30 April 2014 April 29, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Borrowers driven to shadow banks A US regulatory crackdown on the $600bn leveraged loan market is driving borrowers to alternative lenders known as “shadow banks”, according to market participants. Bankers said the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had stepped up their policing of the market, which provides financing [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 12 March 2014 March 11, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Brent crude contract underpinning Slowing output from the North Sea may require IntercontinentalExchange to add oil grades from beyond the offshore European fields to underpin its flagship Brent crude contract. The comments from David Peniket, president of the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, echo growing industry concern that the global crude oil benchmark [...]
Forget invasion: Putin is just four steps from victory in Ukraine February 27, 2014 AS ITS currency collapses, protests flare up in Crimea, and Russia flexes its muscles on the doorstep, those in the West claiming triumph in Ukraine should remember the story of King Pyrrhus of Epirus. In 279 BC, this scourge of the Romans managed to best them at the Battle of Asculum, but at tremendous cost. [...]