Author: Steven Sahiounie

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Wednesday as Wall Street digested a key U.S. labor report that showed job openings dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years in February. New Zealand’s central bank raised its benchmark cash rate by 50 basis points to 5.25%, with the New Zealand dollar strengthening by nearly 0.9% following the decision. Stocks in Wellington erased earlier gains and the S&P/NZX 50 traded 0.27% lower to end at 11,866.83. Japan’s Nikkei 225 led losses in the region, closing 1.68% down at 27,813.26, while the Topix lost 1.92% to end at 1,983.84, even as the economy saw its services sector expanding for the seventh straight month.…

The Egyptian pound has plunged almost 20% against the greenback since the start of the year — with some analysts predicting that the currency may still have room to plummet further. Egypt’s pound currently ranks as the sixth worst performing currency since Jan. 1, extending a decline that saw it lose more than half its value during 2022. The currency was trading at around 30.85 per dollar on Wednesday. As of the end of March, the Lebanese pound places as the top of the most troubled currencies since the start of the year, depreciating by as much as 70%, followed by the Venezuelan bolivar and the…

UBS sought to reassure investors at its annual general meeting on Wednesday against a fraught political backdrop following its takeover of fallen rival Credit Suisse last month. The 1,128 shareholders gathered in Basel were looking for clarity on the board’s integration plan after the “shotgun wedding” between Switzerland’s two biggest banks, which remains mired in controversy, legal peril and public skepticism. UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher told the audience that March 19, the date of the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse from the brink of collapse, was a “historic day and a day we hoped would never come.” But he said the merger also…

The British pound crashed to a record low last fall as investors rebelled against budget plans by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Now, it’s enjoying a comeback. Sterling hit its highest level against the US dollar in 10 months on Tuesday, topping $1.25 for the first time since June 2022. The pound, which has advanced about 3.3% versus the greenback since the start of 2023, is the best-performing currency among developed economies this year. The UK currency has been boosted by indications the country’s economy is holding up better than expected. Activity is now thought to have expanded 0.1% in the final…

LSD sector tokens rose as much as 22% in the past 24 hours, data shows. An upcoming upgrade on the Ethereum network is funneling capital to ether (ETH) and staking-focused tokens as traders likely expect higher prices for these assets in the future. Ether jumped 5% in the past 24 hours, a top performer among major tokens, to over $1,920 on Wednesday morning. That’s the highest price level for the token since August 2022, CoinDesk data shows. Open interest, or the number of unsettled derivative contracts, for ether futures rose to $5.6 billion in the past 24 hours with over…

Open interest, which can be used to determine market strength behind price trends, jumped to all-time highs in dogecoin terms. Dogecoin’s derivatives market have become busier than ever as prices rose sharply following Twitter’s decision to replace its popular blue bird logo with a picture of a Shiba Inu dog earlier this week. Open interest (OI) in stablecoin-margined dogecoin (DOGE) futures contracts surged to nearly 6 billion DOGE tokens as of Tuesday night, data from Coinanlyze shows, setting a record lifetime peak. This represents $600 million worth of dogecoin in unsettled futures positions as of Wednesday. The previous peak for stablecoin-margined contracts…

The 1 million instantly withdrawable ether has become a point of concern for the market. Ethereum’s backward-incompatible Shapella hard fork or Shanghai upgrade, slated to happen in eight days, will let users withdraw their “staked ether.” The lingering fear in the market is that the impending unlocking of ETH deposited in the network to boost security in return for rewards will see some holders rush to exchanges to liquidate their tokens. According to some observers, the resulting increase in selling pressure could be worth a couple of billion dollars. “1.1m ETH related to partial reward withdrawals could face the market, while Celsius…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved Novatek’s request to transfer $1.21 billion to Shell for its stake in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project, Kommersant reported. And the newspaper “Kommersant” reported yesterday, Tuesday, quoting informed sources, that the Russian company submitted a request to transfer 94.8 billion rubles (1.21 billion dollars) to the British company in exchange for its share in the project. Novatek, Russia’s second largest producer of natural gas, said it had applied to buy a 27.5% stake owned by Shell in the project located on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East. The project includes Russia’s first liquefied natural gas…

Pioneers on social media re-circulated warnings by Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman about countries using their emergency stocks of crude oil in an attempt to control prices. Activists circulated a video clip of the Saudi prince warning countries of the world about the repercussions of using their emergency stocks to control prices. And the Saudi energy minister said: “People are depleting their emergency (crude oil) stocks and using them as a tool to manipulate the markets when the right thing is to have them to face any shortage of supplies, and everyone has their choice. It is my…

Oil prices continued to rise, in trading today, Wednesday, after the decision of countries in the “OPEC +” group to reduce more production of black gold to achieve stability in energy markets. And by 10:03 Moscow time, US crude futures rose by 0.55% to $81.15 a barrel, while Brent crude futures rose by 0.61% to $85.46 a barrel, according to Bloomberg agency data. In addition to production cuts, crude prices received support from data from the American Petroleum Institute, which showed that US crude inventories fell by about 4.3 million barrels in the week ending March 31, 2023. And last…