TREE NEWS update: Kansas City Federal Reserve President Schmid said the Fed has still not defeated inflation, the enemy it set out to conquer. The remark, delivered without further elaboration in the material, signals continued concern about price pressures at the US central bank. No policy action or additional detail accompanied the comment.
TREE NEWS reports: Residents of Sirik in eastern Hormozgan province, southern Iran, heard repeated explosions over the past few hours, Iran’s Fars news agency reported. The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear, though some sources said the sounds came from warning shots. Earlier on Nov. 12, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “We don’t need to make a deal with Iran.”
TREE NEWS update: Binance has closed the remaining gap in customer backing after a hack, the exchange said, meaning affected user assets are now fully covered. Users must still wait for the new snapshot’s cryptographic proof before they can independently verify the reserves. No timeline for publishing the proof was given.
TREE NEWS update: Ukraine’s Kernel has suspended operations at all of its oilseed crushing plants following Russian attacks, the company said. The suspension affects the agricultural group’s entire oilseed processing network. No timeline for resuming operations was given.
TREE NEWS update: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly, a 2027 FOMC voter, said she is comfortable with the September rate increase and that further monetary policy tightening is still needed. Daly’s remarks signal continued support for restrictive policy as the central bank works to bring inflation down.
TREE NEWS update: Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, said on Dec. 12 that multilateral negotiations on Russia-Ukraine will take place next week, without specifying the time, location or participants. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said European countries will take part in the next round. The remarks followed a meeting in Russia between President Vladimir Putin, Witkoff and Kushner.
TREE NEWS update: OpenAI said it is investigating a problem with its Microsoft connector in which newly established connections may fail to work properly and related tools are not running as expected. The company disclosed the issue without giving a cause, an affected-user count or a timeline for a fix. No further details were provided.
TREE NEWS reports: The three major US stock indices and the Nasdaq 100 rose by as much as 0.2% in intraday trading, while the semiconductor index turned positive again. Nvidia shares were down 4.4% at the same time, diverging from the broader chip sector’s rebound.
TREE NEWS update: Senate Republican John Thune said he expects others to step forward to run Nvidia after Jensen Huang resigned as the company’s CEO. Thune also said congressional oversight responsibilities remain on Capitol Hill. He did not name a successor or give a timeline for the transition.
TREE NEWS update: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly, a 2027 FOMC voter, said the Fed is fighting inflation but has not overlooked productivity growth, adding that inflation pressures are moving up rather than down. The remarks, dated to her current comments, signal a cautious stance on price trends as the central bank weighs its policy path.
TREE NEWS update: Kansas City Federal Reserve President Schmid said raw material and labor costs could worsen housing affordability, pointing to persistent cost pressures in the housing market. The remarks flag inflation risks the Fed is monitoring as it weighs the policy path. Schmid did not specify measures or timelines in the comments.
TREE NEWS update: BA Labs proposed halting new borrowing from Sky’s Core Vaults, citing 771 open vaults holding 376.33 million USDS in debt. Under the proposal, borrowers could still repay and manage collateral but would be unable to mint more USDS against their positions.
TREE NEWS reports: The Shanghai Futures Exchange’s crude oil futures December 2612 contract closed up 1.65% at 617.90 yuan per barrel in night trading. SHFE gold fell 2.87% and silver dropped 3.43% in the same session.
TREE NEWS update: Anchorage Digital said Visa partners can now pay their VisaNet balances using USDPT, the Western Union stablecoin minted by its bank. Visa has not issued its own statement on the settlement option. The arrangement would let Visa network participants settle obligations in a bank-issued stablecoin rather than through conventional channels.
TREE NEWS update: The Federal Reserve Board announced pricing effective January 1, 2027, for payment services that the Federal Reserve Banks provide to banks and credit unions. The board also announced changes to streamline and adjust their check services. No further details on the pricing levels or the scope of the check-service changes were provided.
TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Assembly of Experts on 12 December called on relevant authorities to consider withdrawing from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to reassess the country’s defense strategy. The assembly said repeated threats against Iran’s nuclear capabilities showed Tehran could no longer place hope in the responsible international bodies, and warned that any renewed attack would be met with a swift, effective response not limited by geography.
TREE NEWS update: Yemen’s Houthi movement said on the evening of the 12th that it carried out two military operations against Saudi oil facilities that day: a drone strike on pump station 7 of the East-West oil pipeline and a ballistic missile strike on the Yanbu oil facility, both of which it said achieved their objectives. The group rejected Saudi claims that two missiles were intercepted over Mecca and denied firing at the holy cities. Saudi Arabia has not responded.
TREE NEWS reports: San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly, a 2027 FOMC voter, said US economic growth is being driven by a technology boom. AI is contributing to price pressures but its direct effect on inflation is mild, she said, adding that its impact on the labor market is limited. The US does have an inflation problem, but AI is not the main driver behind it, Daly said.
TREE NEWS reports: The White House is discussing whether Howard Lutnick will continue in his role as U.S. Commerce Secretary, people familiar with the matter said. The internal deliberations raise questions about Lutnick’s future at the department, though no decision was disclosed. Lutnick, a former Wall Street executive, has served as Commerce Secretary in the current administration.
TREE NEWS update: The International Monetary Fund is closely monitoring swings in artificial intelligence stock valuations and U.S. political developments that could slow data-center construction, spokesperson Julie Kozack said at a regular press briefing. She said it is still too early to determine whether investors will lose long-term confidence in the sector, adding that AI valuations remain exposed to a market re-evaluation of long-term profitability. Nvidia shares fell sharply on Thursday after CEO Jensen Huang’s resignation, dragging the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lower, while AMD, Alphabet and Microsoft rose.