Author: Steven Sahiounie

President Joe Biden on Friday evening gave his first address from the Oval Office to discuss a bill to lift the debt ceiling while capping federal spending, calling it a “critical” agreement. He signed the bill into law on Saturday. “No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed. We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse,” Biden said. The compromise debt ceiling bill passed the Senate by a 63-36 margin Thursday evening, winning enough support from both parties to overcome the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster. On Wednesday, it moved through…

In the unveiling of his new cabinet, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan named former economy chief Mehmet Simsek as his new treasury and economy minister, leading to some optimism that the country will now forge a new economic path. Simsek was known for his market friendly policies, and subsequently went on to become the country’s deputy prime minister from 2015 to 2018 after his stint as Turkey’s finance minister. Erdogan, whose victory in the 2023 presidential election means an extension of his rule into a third decade in power, has changed most of his cabinet members with exception of the…

Asia-Pacific markets are largely higher after U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law a debt ceiling bill that allowed the U.S. to avert defaulting on its financial obligations over the weekend. The compromise debt ceiling bill passed the Senate by a 63-36 margin Thursday evening, winning enough support from both parties to overcome the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster. On Wednesday, it moved through the House after about 72 hours, passing 314-117. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surged 2.2% above the 32,000 mark for the first time since 1990 to close at 32,217.43. The Topix was 1.7% higher…

UBS expects to complete its takeover of Credit Suisse “as early as June 12”, which will create a giant Swiss bank with a balance sheet of $1.6 trillion following a government-backed rescue earlier this year. The deal’s completion is subject to the registration statement, which covers shares to be delivered, being declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and other remaining closing conditions, UBS said in a statement on Monday. “UBS expects to complete the acquisition of Credit Suisse as early as 12 June 2023. At that time, Credit Suisse Group AG will be merged into UBS Group…

The International Monetary Fund has yet to see enough banks pulling back on lending that would cause the U.S. Federal Reserve to change course with its rate-hiking cycle. “We don’t yet see a significant slowdown in lending. There is some, but not on the scale that would lead to the Fed stepping back,” the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC’s Karen Tso Saturday in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Federal Reserve in a May banks report warned that lenders are worried about conditions ahead, as trouble in mid-sized financial institutions in the U.S. caused banks to tighten lending standards for households…

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman defended the voluntary output cuts announced by some allied oil producers in April, which he noted were first criticized as likely to spike crude prices — then, as failing to support them. On April 3, several producers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners — collectively known as OPEC+ — revealed a combined 1.66 million barrels per day of production declines until the end of this year. This Sunday, they extended these measures through the end of 2024, with Riyadh announcing an additional 1 million-per-day voluntary and extensible drop,…

The influential Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, on Sunday made no changes to its planned oil production cuts for this year, as coalition chair Saudi Arabia announced further voluntary declines. OPEC+ also announced in a statement that it will limit combined oil production to 40.463 million barrels per day over January-December 2024. Previously, the alliance agreed to a 2 million barrels-per-day decline in October. Some OPEC+ members also announced some voluntary drops of just over 1.6 million barrels per day in April. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Sunday that all…

Oil prices rose following OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut production by another million barrels per day. On Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners (known as OPEC+) made no changes to its planned oil production cuts for the rest of the year. However, the world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia announced further voluntary output cuts which will be implemented from July. The kingdom’s output will decline to 9 million barrels per day from around 10 million barrels in May, Saudi’s energy ministry said in a statement. Both benchmarks were trading higher on Monday, although…

The cost of passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles is set to increase by more than 8% The Turkish government has raised the fee for ships passing through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, the newspaper Aydinlik reports, citing a ruling by the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. The key waterways are the only way to move cargoes between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The fee increase of 8.3% comes into effect on July 1, and is projected to bring Ankara’s annual revenue from the straits to $900 million. Commercial ships will now…

AvtoVAZ says the St. Petersburg factory will become operational in June Car production at a St. Petersburg plant that formerly belonged to Nissan will resume this month, the CEO of Russia’s biggest automaker AvtoVAZ has announced. The Japanese manufacturer left the Russian market last year, transferring all its assets in the country to the state-owned research and development firm NAMI for a token sum of €1. The plant in Russia’s second-largest city was later bought by AvtoVAZ, which is best known for its Lada vehicles. “June 14, 2023 is the date when production at the Lada St. Petersburg plant will…