Analysis: Currencies

Wall St futures slip, dollar climbs on tariff threats

Wall Street share futures fell and the dollar rose broadly on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump repeated warnings of imminent tariffs including on steel and aluminium, an inflationary move that...

Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Sunday they had successfully synchronised their electricity systems to the European continental power grid, one day after severing decades-old energy ties to...

Russia may ban gasoline exports for a month to stabilise prices, TASS reports

MOSCOW -Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service may initiate a one-month ban on gasoline exports by large producers in order to stabilise wholesale prices ahead of the crop-sowing season, state news...

High inflation is key challenge for Russia's economy, prime minister tells Putin

* Prime Minister Mishustin reports 2024 economic figures * Russian economy grew by 4.1% in 2024 * Putin asks the government to fight...

EU eyes tweak to fiscal rules to allow more defence spending

European Union governments are considering a wider definition of what is defence investment to allow for more government spending that would not trigger punitive EU action for excessive borrowing...

Russia to widen asset seizing power with new legislation, sources say

Russia is set to widen its power to retaliate for Western asset seizures with new legislation that could allow it to confiscate the frozen funds of foreign companies and investors, two sources...

Avolon settles lawsuit against insurers over stranded Russian jets

Avolon has settled a lawsuit against a number of insurers over jets that were prevented from leaving Russia when Western sanctions forced the termination of their leases in 2022, the world's...

France, UAE agree to develop 1 gigawatt AI data centre

France and the United Arab Emirates agreed on Thursday to a framework accord for a 1 gigawatt data centre dedicated to artificial intelligence that represents investments of between $30-$50 billion,...

Russia's struggling grain trader gives up foreign passport to keep business

The owner of a company that was until recently Russia's largest grain trader has given up his foreign citizenship, a source close to his company told Reuters, in an apparent attempt to remain in...

Russia seeks to end foreign corporate holding of vodka producer Russian Standard

Russia's finance ministry has added the Russian Standard Group companies to a list of economically significant organisations and launched an arbitration case over their foreign corporate holding...

Russia plans to boost yuan sales by 17% to support the rouble

Russia said on Wednesday it would boost its sales of Chinese yuan by 17% from Feb. 7 in a move seen as aimed at supporting the rouble in the face of increased volatility due to Western sanctions and...

Russian services sector sees fastest growth in a year, PMI shows

Russia's services sector saw its fastest growth in a year in January, buoyed by a sharp increase in new business, a survey showed on Wednesday. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers' Index...

Sterling drops versus euro after biggest daily rise in months, awaits BoE

The pound edged lower against the euro on Tuesday after recording its biggest daily rise in three months a day earlier as investors expect U.S. tariffs to hurt the economy more in Europe than in the...

Central bank body urges policy revamps to heed COVID lessons

Central bank body the Bank for International Settlements has urged the likes of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank to revamp the way they approach interest rate setting to avoid the...

Investors with 6 trillion euros warn EU not to weaken green rules

Investors with 6.6 trillion euros in assets under management have urged the European Union not to weaken its sustainability rules, as Brussels draws up plans to cut red tape around green finance. ...

Europe will have to make itself respected if commercial interests attacked, Macron says

If Europe is attacked on its commercial interests it will have to make itself respected, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday ahead of an informal defence meeting with EU leaders in...

Currencies: Tariffs have taken the wind out of the sails (for now)

All was well until the announcement of an effective tariff increase. This should not have come as a surprise to the financial community, but clearly it did. Lulled into sweet illusions of leniency,...

Asia's factory activity weakens as Trump tariffs jolt sentiment

Asia's factory activity weakened in January as soft Chinese demand and threats of higher tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump weighed on business sentiment, private surveys showed on Monday,...

Sterling set for fourth monthly loss as UK economy softens

The pound headed for a fourth monthly loss on Friday, increasingly under pressure from investor concern about the outlook for the British economy, following January's bond market turmoil and in light...