Igor Kuchma

One of the most important developments last week was the announcement of an unscheduled board meeting by the FED. Most probably, members of the regulator will discuss the steps to take in order to calm down the inflation bonanza. The main intrigue is whether manipulating rates will help in curbing CPI. After all, this inflation […]

Last week’s markets were mainly dominated by three factors: central bank meetings, OPEC’s decision and corporate results. First, in Australia, the RBA opted to keep the base rate at a record low of 0.1%, while ending its A$275 billion (US$194.4 billion) bond-buying program. The regulator also said that a rate hike would be considered if […]

As expected, the United States and NATO said that they would not compromise the “open door” principle. In return, NATO suggested that Russia should establish a direct line of communication, and continue the dialogue on different platforms, including the NATO-Russia Council. The North Atlantic Alliance has also invited Russia to discuss issues of disarmament, missile […]

Volatility is back – the VIX index rose last week by more than 30% to 26.1. Global equities remain under pressure amid a steady rise in US bond yields, as well as nervousness around the pace of US Federal Reserve tightening and weak economic data. It is worth mentioning that even the cryptocurrency market couldn’t […]

Geopolitics is back — and the EU needs to get ready. After the meeting in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, “We are tired of holding empty talks, half-promises, misinterpretations, which often happened in closed-door negotiations. It is a question of Russian national security.” He further said that Russia was not going to invade […]

The year starts on a negative note… The first week of the year turned out to be much more volatile than one would expect. First, there was an attempted revolution in Kazakhstan. To be more precise, mass protests broke out on January 2 against the doubling of gas prices from 60 to 120 tenge per […]

Statistically, the last week of the year has almost always been the strongest period for the S&P 500 – it is estimated that more than 69% of the time since 1950, the index has closed the final week of the year higher. Despite all the circumstance, this time has been no exception – both the […]

The penultimate week of 2021 was rich in events. First thing first, the People’s Bank of China lowered the one-year prime lending rate to 3.8% from 3.85%. Moreover, it is expected that the Chinese central bank will continue easing its policy to curb the economic slowdown. No surprise the regulator recently cut the reserve requirement […]

With just less than two weeks before the new year, uncertainty in the financial markets continues to escalate. Investors fear that new mobility restrictions could affect fuel demand. If the mutated Omicron is indeed shown to have worrisome vaccine resistance and increased transmissibility, black gold prices are likely to correct further, dragging travel sector companies […]

This week it became known that miners have extracted 90% of the total amount of bitcoins. To be more precise, out of the 21 million bitcoins users have access to more than 18.9 million BTC. It is estimated that it will take 119 years to extract the remaining 2.1 million BTC. In this context, two […]