In this week’s recap, the most important news was the high US dollar price, Elon Musk walking away from the Twitter deal, and the inflation striking world economies. Us and international markets mainly ended positively for the week. The USD appears to be an ultimate safe haven for investors, with global recession risks incoming. The USD ended the week at a 20-year high. Euro is fast heading towards parity, even if it is holding above 20-year lows in Europe Thursday morning. Japanese yen’s lowest levels in over 20 years. British sterling is near its lowest since March 2020. The Russian ruble has slid by 16% this week.
Billionaire Elon Musk wants to end his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk’s lawyer claimed Twitter failed to comply with its obligations in the merger agreement. Twitter’s board chair Bret Taylor said the company is still committed to closing the deal at the agreed-upon price and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement. Mr. Musk said he had backed out because Twitter failed to provide enough information on the number of spam and fake accounts. Twitter says it plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement.
Over 5M barrels of oil part of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), were exported to Europe & Asia in June, including China. Even as U.S. gasoline & diesel prices hit record highs, SPR inventories have fallen to 538M barrels, the lowest since 1987. Biden administration rep sold nearly 1M barrels of oil from SPR to a Chinese state-owned firm.
Hamburg preparing ration hot water as Russia energy crisis escalates; China’s steel mills approaching crisis conditions; Gold hit 6.5-month low & silver a 2-year low; South Korea CPI CPI in June rose +6%; Euro hit lowest level against USD since 2002; $250B debt bomb threatens to drag developing world into a historic cascade of defaults; Generac Holding shares rise +6.04% on Thursday; Canada has major internet outage: 911, ATMs, debit card services down in Canada; all 30 NATO member countries approved accession protocols Finland & Sweden join NATO; according to UNESCO, over 150 cultural sites in Ukraine partially or destroyed as a result of Russia’s attack & war in Ukraine.
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