Oil prices spiked to their highest levels since 2008 on Monday after Secretary of State Andrew Blinken said the U.S. and its European allies were considering banning imports of Russian oil. The Biden administration has been facing pressure from Congress to impose energy sanctions on Russia, a move that the White House has resisted, citing concerns over their impacts on oil prices. That seemed to change over the weekend, when Blinken said on CNN that the U.S. and allies were looking “at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil, while making sure that there is a still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets.”Oil prices have climbed more than 25% over the last five sessions alone, the fastest price increase in a decade. Oil Takes Off With Ban on Russian Supplies on the Table Ma

Baidu, Inc. BIDU is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2021 results on Mar 1.For the fourth quarter, the company expects revenues between RMB 31 billion ($4.81 billion) and RMB 34 billion ($5.27 billion), suggesting a growth rate of 2-12% year over year.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $5.15 billion, indicating growth of 11.1% from the year-ago reported figure.Further, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.49 per share, suggesting a decline of 51.6% from the prior-year reported figure. The consensus mark has been unchanged for the past 30 says.BIDU beat estimates in all the trailing four quarters, delivering an earnings surprise of 27.6%, on average.Baidu’s fourth-quarter revenues are expected to have been driven by strength in Baidu core owing to

A decision by Western allies on Saturday (Feb 26) to block "selected" Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system will inflict a crippling economic blow, but also cause much pain to their own companies and banks. And the allies still have room to do more. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a secure messaging system to ensure rapid cross-border payments which has become the principal mechanism to finance international trade.Russian banks denied access to SWIFT will find it harder to communicate with peers internationally, even in friendly countries such as China, slowing trade and making transactions costlier. But the allies, who also vowed curbs on Russian's central bank to limit its ability to support the rouble, have not yet said which banks would

Online food delivery group Meituan (3690.HK) led a rout of Chinese technology company shares on Friday, as authorities announced a series of regulatory moves to boost growth while keeping financial risks under control. China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), on Friday issued rules to promote a faster recovery from the pandemic in the services sector, including guidance for online food delivery platforms to reduce service fees to help to lower operating costs for catering businesses. Those rules were announced as the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission warned against using the metaverse as a tool for illegal fund-raising, saying that some companies were engaging in illegal fund-raising, fraud, and virtual real estate speculation. Investo

E-commerce sites operated by China's Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) were included on the U.S. government's latest "notorious markets" list, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Thursday. The list identifies 42 online markets and 35 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy. China-based online markets Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo, and Taobao also continue to be part of the list, along with nine physical markets located within China "that are known for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of counterfeit goods," the USTR office said. Alibaba said it will continue working with government agencies to address concerns in intellectual property protection across it

Asian shares rallied on Wednesday as fears of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine this week dissipated after Moscow indicated it was returning some troops to base in an apparent de-escalation, delivering investors a measure of relief. The tension between world powers over the Ukraine situation, which has developed into one of the deepest crises in East-West relations for decades, has been front-and-centre of investors' minds. But while the immediate risk of a flare-up in tensions over Ukraine waned, some market watchers warned that save-haven assets could find a renewed bid in the case of new escalations over the conflict. There seems to be a growing belief that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is leaning on a diplomatic solution and the market has walked back some positioning placed for

Geopolitical worries have added another layer of volatility to an already-jumpy market as investors priced in the possibility of escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, though some doubted the issue would weigh on U.S. asset prices over the longer term. Reports of rising tensions between the two countries slammed stocks on Friday and lifted prices for Treasuries, the dollar and other safe-haven assets. Investors were already rattled by a hawkish turn from the Federal Reserve.The market is reacting because an actual invasion has not yet been priced in," said Michael Farr of Farr, Miller and Washington LLC. "The severity of an invasion, if one occurs, will correlate to the severity of the market’s reaction." The United States and Europe stepped up their warnings of an imminent attack

The consumer price index came in hotter than expected in January, as both the CPI inflation rate and the core rate, excluding food and energy, hit new 39-year highs. Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq losses deepened in Thursday afternoon stock market action as Wall Street priced in additional Fed rate hikes. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield crested 2% for the first time since August 2019 and kept on rising. The CPI rose 0.6% from the prior month and 7.5% vs. a year ago, the biggest annual gain since February 1982, the Labor Department said. The core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy categories, also rose 0.6% from December, while the annual core inflation rate rose to 6%. Most economists have been looking for inflation pressures to begin easing from current leve

UK lenders HSBC and Standard Chartered, which derive most of their profits in Asia, are trading near two-year highs in Hong Kong, as investors bet higher interest rates globally will bolster their bottom lines. Both lenders, alongside their industry peers, have seen their shares advance since the start of the new year as it became clearer that central banks, from the Federal Reserve to the Bank of England, would need to increase their policy rates to address a rapid rise in inflation.The rapid growth of Western economies as they recover from the coronavirus pandemic, alongside higher fuel costs, have contributed to rising costs of living. Recent government reports showed prices climbed the most in nearly 40 years in the US and by nearly three decades in the UK.Before the pandemic hit in ea

The U.S. economy created far more jobs than expected in January but despite the disruption to consumer-facing businesses from a surge in COVID-19 cases, pointing to underlying strength that should sustain the expansion as the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates. The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday also showed a whopping 709,000 more jobs were added in November and December than previously estimated. Wage gains accelerated last month and the labor pool expanded.The upbeat report ended days of anxiety among economists and White House officials who had frantically tried to prepare the nation for a disappointing payrolls number. Strong employment gains, accompanied by the biggest annual increase in wages since May 2020, pave the way for the U.S. centra

Chinese electric carmakers Nio and Xpeng saw deliveries dip in January versus December but were still higher compared to a year ago. Xpeng said Tuesday it delivered 12,922 electric vehicles in January, a more than 19% dip from December. But that still represents a 115% year-on-year rise. It’s the fifth straight month that Xpeng has delivered over 10,000 units in a single month. But in November and December, it managed to exceed 15,000 deliveries.As of Jan. 31, Xpeng said cumulative deliveries of its electric cars — the P7, P5, G3 and G3i — surpassed 150,000 units. Both Nio and Xpeng have been grappling with the global chip shortage which continues to plague the auto industry. In an earnings call in July, Xpeng CEO He Xiaopeng said that the global chip shortage remains the “biggest producti

Market regulators for China's Shenzhen-based ChiNext board announced late on Wednesday the approval of the pending initial public offering (IPO) of the semiconductor unit of Chinese automaker BYD Co Ltd.The automaker originally filed for an IPO for BYD Semiconductor in Shenzhen in May 2021. However, in August, the company was forced to halt plans as a firm advising in its IPO process faced a regulatory probe.The company aims to raise 2 billion yuan ($314.25 million), according to its most recent prospectus.BYD Semiconductor's IPO comes as global supply chains face a chip shortage, which originated in the automotive sector.The division makes and sells power semiconductors, intelligent control integrated circuits, intelligent sensors, and optoelectronic semiconductors, according to company f

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was ready to raise interest rates in March and didn’t rule out moving at every meeting to tackle the highest inflation in a generation. “The committee is of a mind to raise the Fed funds rate at the March meeting” if conditions are there to do so, Powell told a virtual press conference on Wednesday, while noting that officials have not made any decisions about the path of policy because it needs to be “nimble.”He was speaking after the Federal Open Market Committee concluded its two-day meeting with a statement that declared “it will soon be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate,” citing inflation well above its 2% target and a strong job market.In a separate statement, the Fed said it expects the process

Chinese technology stocks tumbled in Hong Kong, tracking a slump in US peers and digital assets as traders turned cautious on policy tightening risks and the city recorded the most Covid-19 cases in 18 months. The Hang Seng Tech Index lost 2.8 per cent at the close of Monday trading, the steepest in two weeks as Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com led the pullback for a second day. The Hang Seng Index retreated 1.2 per cent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index erassed losses to end little changed. Major Asian markets were mixed. Shares in South Korea retreated by 1.5 per cent, while Australian stocks lost 0.5 per cent. The Japanese benchmark rose 0.2 per cent. “The start of Fed hiking cycles tends to pose a modest headwind to Asian equities,” strategists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a report

China's Geely Holding and France's Renault have formally agreed a deal to jointly design and produce electric hybrid and gasoline-fueled vehicles in South Korea for sale there, as well as for export, according to a joint statement by the two automotive groups. The new vehicles, based on Geely’s compact vehicle architecture as well as its hybrid powertrain and other technologies, will be produced at the Renault-Samsung facility in Busan with production forecast to begin in 2024. For Renault, the joint venture deal, in the works since last year, will allow its struggling South Korean unit to strengthen its product lineup and expand its market. Renault has been making and selling cars in South Korea for over two decades via a local brand with a Samsung Group unit.If you wish to leverage on

China’s central bank cut its benchmark lending rates again on Thursday amid concerns about an economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The People’s Bank of China reduced the one-year loan prime rate by 10 basis points from 3.8% to 3.7%. In December, the PBOC cut the one-year loan prime rate for the first time since April 2020.The five-year loan prime rate was lowered by 5 basis points from 4.65% to 4.6% — it was the first cut since April 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.Loan prime rates (LPR) affect the lending rates for corporate and household loans in the country.Most new and outstanding loans in China are based on the one-year LPR, but the five-year rate influences the pricing of home mortgages, according to Reuters. A snap poll by Reuters h

HSBC warned traders that one of the main risks to business continuity is the city's quarantine policy as the Asian financial hub tightens to contain a 5th wave of infections.Hong Kong, which is pursuing a Covid Zero strategy to match mainland China, has employed some of the strictest measures in the world to keep infections at bay.Authorities have sent close contacts of positive cases to quarantine camps for several weeks and also banned flights from 8 countries, on top of mandating 21 days in hotel isolation for most incoming travelers.As a precaution, the bank has split its global markets division into 3, with a group of about 190 people working at its main office on Queen's Road Central, a team of about 65 people placed at an office in Shek Mun, and a 3rd team of about 200 working from

China posted a record trade surplus in December and in 2021, as exports outperformed expectations during a global pandemic, but some analysts pointed to a slowdown in international shipments in the coming months. The trade surplus hit $676.43 billion in 2021, the highest since records started in 1950, up from $523.99 bln in 2020, according to data from the statistics bureau. China also posted a record trade surplus for the month of December as exports remained robust while import growth slowed sharply. China's hefty trade surplus with the United States, a key source of contention between the world's two biggest economies, hit $39.23 billion in December, widening from $36.95 billion the month before, but below this year's high of $42 billion in September. China's exports outperformed expe

inflation plowed ahead at its fastest 12-month pace in nearly 40 years during December, according to a closely watched gauge the Labor Department released Wednesday. The consumer price index, a metric that measures costs across dozens of items, increased 7%, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a monthly basis, CPI rose 0.5.The annual move was the fastest increase since June 1982 and comes amid a shortage of goods and workers and on the heels of unprecedented cash flowing through the U.S. economy from Congress and the Federal Reserve. Excluding food and energy prices, so-called core CPI increased 5.5% year over year and 0.6% from the previous month. That compared with estimates of 5.4% and 0.5%. For core inflation, it was the largest annual growth since February 199

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has opened two retail stores in the Netherlands that it says will be manned with robots preparing and delivering packages. The “robotic shops,” branded Ochama, are located in the cities of Leiden and Rotterdam and mark JD.com’s first foray into Europe with bricks and mortar locations. It highlights the Chinese giant’s ambitions to expand beyond China.JD.com said that shoppers can use the Ochama app to order products from food to beauty and home furnishings. They can then go to the store where automated vehicles and robotic arms will pick and sort orders. When a shopper gets to the store, they can scan a barcode on their app and their orders will be carried to them via a conveyer belt.JD.com’s entry into Europe marks the start of a potential challenge to Amaz