Surging Services Costs Spark Unexpected Surge In US Producer Prices In January

B200s Or B-2s? By Bas van Geffen, senior macro strategist of Rabobank Concerns about the Middle East continued to dictate markets yesterday. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and there were no signs that this will change soon. Oil prices rose further. Dated Brent jumped 5% on the day to top $111. Alongside the rise in benchmark energy prices, yields increased too. 10y US Treasury yields closed around 5bp higher, and 10y German Bund yields rose 6bp to 3.1%, dragging broader EUR yields up. Equities struggled. European bourses closed around 1.5% lower,...

China Dismisses Report Of Top Chipmaker Aiding Iranian Forces As "Fake News" Beijing moved into damage-control mode on Friday, with its foreign ministry dismissing a Reuters report that cited two senior Trump administration officials alleging that SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, had sent chipmaking tools to Iran, as "false information." Asked about the report at a regular news conference in Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said he was "not familiar with the situation" and added, "What I can tell you is that recently, some media have been keen on releasing...

Fed Moves To Close Stablecoin Loopholes With New Customer ID Rules Authored by Micah Zimmermann via BitcoinMagazine.com, The Federal Reserve proposed Thursday that payment stablecoin issuers maintain written customer identification programs, a move that signals Washington’s determination to bring digital asset markets under the same anti-money laundering discipline long applied to traditional banks — even as regulators race to finalize rules before a statutory deadline this coming January. The proposal would require so-called permitted payment stablecoin issuers, or PPSIs, to collect from each new customer a legal name, date of birth or formation, physical...