Author: Steven Sahiounie

BerlinCNN — Nationwide strikes in Germany — among its worst in decades — are causing huge disruption at the country’s airports, on public transport and its largest port Monday. The walkouts have been called by two major transport unions in Europe’s biggest economy. Ver.di, one of the unions, has demanded a 10.5% pay raise for its members, citing rising energy and food costs. More than 400,000 transport workers are taking part in the industrial action, according to Frank Werneke, the head of Ver.di. Flights at eight major airports, including those in Munich, Frankfurt and Hamburg, have been affected by the strikes. The German…

London/Oakland, CaliforniaCNN — First Citizens Bank is buying most of the business of Silicon Valley Bank, the US tech lender that failed earlier this month. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said in a statement late Sunday it had agreed that First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company (FCIZP) would buy all of SVB’s deposits and loans that regulators had transferred to a bridge bank in the wake of its collapse. Seventeen former branches of SVB will begin operating as “Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank,” on Monday, First Citizens said. SVB customers should continue to use their current branch until they receive notice from First…

LondonCNN — European banking stocks rose Monday, boosted by the news that US lender First Citizens Bank would buy most of the business of failed Silicon Valley Bank. The Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index, which tracks 42 big EU and UK banks, ticked up by nearly 1% in morning trade, while London’s bank-heavy FTSE 100 (UKX) was 0.5% higher. Deutsche Bank (DB) rose 6% in early trade, before paring gains to trade 4% higher by mid-morning. Its stock closed down 8.5% on Friday as investors fretted that Germany’s biggest lender might be vulnerable to the crisis of confidence triggered by the collapse of SVB, and the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse (CS).…

Shares of the Swiss bank tumbled after Ammar Al Khudairy warned of a funding cut-off The chairman of Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, the Saudi National Bank (SNB), Ammar Al Khudairy, has resigned his position, the bank announced on Monday. The resignation, officially “due to personal reasons,” came mere days after his comments triggered a share price collapse of Switzerland’s second-largest bank, Credit Suisse. When asked in an interview with Bloomberg TV whether the SNB would be open to providing additional capital to Credit Suisse, Al Khudairy responded, “The answer is absolutely not, for many reasons outside the simplest reason which is…

The country would have continued to use the greenback but sanctions prevent it, the Russian leader has said Russia’s growing use of the Chinese yuan and other currencies in transactions with foreign partners should not be seen as an attack on the US dollar, according to President Vladimir Putin. In a weekend interview with the Russia 24 TV channel, Putin said the decision had been forced on his country by Western sanctions. “We would use the dollar, but they won’t allow us to do that, so how do we make payments? In a currency that is acceptable to our trading…

Tokyo wants to keep its investment in Sakhalin oil and gas projects to ensure its energy security, Fumio Kishida has said Japanese companies will continue to participate in Russian energy projects on Sakhalin Island due to their importance for Tokyo’s energy security, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced at a meeting of the upper house of parliament on Monday. Kishida told lawmakers that last year Tokyo managed to cut reliance on Russia’s energy resources by slashing oil imports by 90% and coal by 60%. Japan, which currently chairs the Group of Seven industrialized nations, remains in “close cooperation with the countries of…

Cathy Wood’s fund bought COIN and SQ on Thursday and Friday last week after Coinbase tumbled on getting hit with a Wells Notice and Block took a hit following a short-seller’s report. Cathy Wood’s ARK Invest bought $12.6 million of Coinbase (COIN) shares on Friday, the second straight day the fund bought the crypto exchange’s stock after the company received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 22, sending COIN tumbling 16% the next day. The shares gained 1.5% on Friday to close at $67.83 apiece. According to an email sent Friday night U.S.…

Happy Monday. Bitcoin is starting the Asia business day up 1.7%, just below $28K at $27,966. Ether is slightly outperforming bitcoin, beginning the day up 1.8% at $1,777. Speaking with CoinDesk TV on Friday, Oanda Senior Market Analyst Edward Moya said the success of Coinbase is dictating much of the future price movement of crypto. “Crypto traders are closely following everything with Coinbase. ​ Coinbase CEO [Brian] Armstrong noted that they weren’t entirely surprised by the SEC notice. No one knows how regulators are going to rule if all tokens are securities,” he said. “Coinbase’s success is vital for longer-term…

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says Silicon Valley Bridge Bank’s $72 billion in assets will be purchased by First Citizens at a discount of $16.5 billion. A deal has been finalized for what’s left of Silicon Valley Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) announced late Sunday U.S. time that it had finalized a deal with Raleigh, N.C.-based First Citizens Bank to acquire the deposits and loans of the failed Silicon Valley Bank. Bloomberg had initially reported that a deal was nearing completion and could be announced as early as Monday morning U.S. time. In a statement, the FDIC said that all depositors of…

On Saturday, March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would station its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus at the request of the Belarusian side, just as the US has long been doing on the territory of its allies China calls for reducing the risk of conflict between nuclear powers, reiterating that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told a briefing on Monday. “Last January, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states issued a joint statement that a nuclear war should not be started, that it cannot be won. They…