Author: Steven Sahiounie

Several EU countries are planning to cut their reliance on Russian uranium by turning to Kazakhstan for supplies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing the CEO of state-owned Kazakh mining company Kazatomprom. According to Yerzhan Mukanov, the uranium miner has received requests from several nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe for supply contracts from 2025. The plants in question ordinarily buy their uranium from Russia. “We are preparing our reserves for production, so we will be able to respond to market requests,” Mukanov said, adding that his company plans to maintain its uranium output this year at about 22,000 tons. Kazakhstan…

Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) token continued its losing streak versus Bitcoin (BTC) for the fifth day in a row as BTC’s price jumped above $30,000 for the first time since June 2022. ETH/BTC bullish reversal fails midway On April 11, the ETH/BTC pair dropped nearly 1.6% to 0.0634 BTC to retest multi-month lows. ETH/BTC level is down 6.75% from its local peak of 0.0679 BTC set six days ago. It is also just 2% above the pair’s local low of 0.0622 BTC from March 20, showing that Ether’s bullish reversal attempt versus Bitcoin is near failure. Interestingly, institutional interest also appears…

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing unit of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, announced Tuesday it will be rolling out its own ChatGPT-style product Tongyi Qianwen. Tongyi Qianwen, which possess Chinese and English language capabilities, will initially be deployed on DingTalk, Alibaba’s workplace communication software, and Tmall Genie, a provider of smart home appliances, the company said in a release. Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba gained traded more than 3% higher after the announcement but has since pared some gains. Shares of Baidu in Hong Kong were down 6%. At the 2023 Alibaba Cloud Summit, the company said it will be rolling out the artificial intelligence-powered…

It’s been one month since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, triggering alarms throughout the halls of global finance. The initial panic has settled into a more tolerable state of tension. We can all take a deep breath, knowing our money is safe and that banks have the tools they need, courtesy of the federal government, to weather the storm. “We’re going from flashing red lights to flashing yellow lights,” Wells Fargo’s senior bank analyst Mike Mayo told me recently. “I think it’s time for hyper awareness and vigilance to anything else” that might further undermine confidence. Regulators and investors are certainly on…

Markets were mostly unchanged Monday, though bitcoin breached $30,000. Investors are waiting for bank earnings and price reports. What you need to know today The bottom line Markets in the U.S. reopened Monday but seemed to retain a post-holiday sluggishness as investors digested multiple signs of a slowing — but still strong — economy. First, even though consumers felt credit was harder to come by in March, the banking turmoil is subsiding. Charles Schwab said average daily outflows were down from February, and the bank had added $53 billion of core net new client assets in March. That trend is…

Credit Suisse and UBS must freeze any job cuts planned as part of their emergency merger, the Swiss Bank Employees’ Association (SBPV) said on Monday, in an open letter to the country’s parliament. SBPV managing director Natalia Ferrara has written to lawmakers to demand they consider staff affected by the collapse of Credit Suisse and halt any job losses until the end of 2023. “We … call on you to support our demand for a freeze on layoffs by the end of 2023 in parliament,” Ferrara wrote in the letter published by newspaper Blick on Monday. “Politicians must not shirk responsibility,” she added.…

Bitcoin climbed on Monday evening, topping the key psychological level of $30,000 as investors awaited key inflation data later in the week that could steer crypto prices. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap rose 7% to $30,193.25 for the first time since June, according to Coin Metrics. Ether advanced more than 3.5% to $1,925.11 for the first time since August as investors awaited the Ethereum network’s latest tech upgrade, scheduled for Wednesday. Now that bitcoin has touched $30,000, a move into the mid- to high-30s will be “likely” if it pushes through with conviction and would “force short speculators to…

Oil prices inched up in Asia’s morning trade as traders continue to digest OPEC’s production cuts last week alongside potential further interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Investors are awaiting crucial U.S. inflation data on Wednesday, which would inform the Fed’s next move. Brent crude futures rose 0.21% to $84.36 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained 0.26% to $79.95 a barrel. Russia also remains a “key country to watch” when it comes understanding the extent of supply disruption in the oil market, Vivek Dhar from Commonwealth Bank of Australia wrote in a daily note. This article was originally published by…

South Korea’s central bank is likely to maintain its benchmark interest rate at its current 3.5% as core inflation seems sticky, Oxford Economics told CNBC. “I believe that the authorities think that the current settings will be able achieve the slowdown in the inflation that they’re aiming for,” said Sung Eun Jung of Oxford Economics. She added that rate cuts “seem premature,” for the central bank, while pointing to weakened domestic demand adding to bringing down inflation.Oxford Economics is expecting the central bank to cut its benchmark interest rate by the first quarter of next year, she said. South Korea’s…

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific mostly rose on Tuesday as the Bank of Korea held interest rates at 3.5%, in line with expectations. South Korea’s central bank held rates for the second consecutive time as the nation grapples with an inflation rate of 4.2%. South Korea’s Kospi rose further after the move and traded 1.42% higher to 2,547.86 and the Kosdaq inched up 1.26% to 898.94. Bitcoin surpassed $30,000 for the first time since June 2022 while ether neared $2,000. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 traded 1.26% higher to 7,309.9. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.05% to 27,923.37 and the Topix gained 0.78% to 1,991.85, led by technology and consumer…