Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: London Metal Exchange copper closed down $239 at $14,001 a tonne, with the rest of the base metals complex also lower. Aluminium fell $8 to $3,244, zinc dropped $88 to $3,794 and lead slipped $10 to $1,882. Nickel lost $135 to $16,334, tin fell $1,485 to $51,879 and cobalt declined $650 to $41,200.

TREE NEWS reports: LPL Financial chief equity strategist Jeff Buchbinder reviewed six Federal Reserve tightening cycles since 1994 and found the S&P 500 typically struggles in the first months after an initial rate hike, though one-year returns are often better. After the Fed’s March 1997 hike, the index gained 42% over the following year, an outlier that lifts the historical average. The outcome hinges on whether the economy slips into recession.

TREE NEWS update: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on September 14 that Ukraine is prepared to stop striking Russian energy targets if partners can ensure Moscow halts attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, infrastructure and food supply routes. In a social media post, he said de-escalation on critical infrastructure could be a first step toward peace, and that Ukraine expects concrete proposals from its partners. US President Donald Trump had said Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop mutual strikes on energy targets.

TREE NEWS reports: Germany’s 2-year Bund yield rose 6.8 basis points to 3.263% at Monday’s European close, moving back toward its March 9, 2023 intraday high of 3.382%. The 10-year yield added 1.3bps to 3.518%, while the 30-year yield fell 4.0bps to 3.858%. The 2/10-year spread narrowed 5.653bps to +25.129bps.

TREE NEWS reports: Saudi Arabia is seeking to further increase oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz after an attack halted a key alternative pipeline bypassing the strait, a person familiar said. Saudi Aramco raised total crude exports to nearly 4 million barrels per day in early September, about 1 million of it via Hormuz and the rest through the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Vortexa and Kpler tanker-tracking data show Saudi August crude exports fell to about 3 million bpd, the lowest in at least nine years. The kingdom shut the East-West pipeline last week.

TREE NEWS update: Donald Trump said the rise in US prices is the fault of Joe Biden and his administration, not his own. He said oil prices were higher under Biden and that he had stopped Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Apart from oil, prices are falling sharply, and oil will plunge once the military conflict with Iran ends — a day he said is not far off.

TREE NEWS reports: JPMorgan reiterated its bullish stance on US equities after a broad selloff on Monday that sent the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down nearly 6%, warning that aggressive shorting is dangerous. Mislav Matejka, the bank’s head of global and European equity strategy, said soaring oil prices weigh on valuations but corporate earnings expansion remains intact. He added that any Middle East de-escalation by Trump or a stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings season could trigger a sharp squeeze on shorts.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz, signaling the key shipping route remains open. He added that countries that gave no help to the United States should, and will, compensate Washington once the conflict ends. Trump said the US has long spent far more on others than on itself, a pattern he said has lasted for generations.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said American weapons production has reached an all-time high. No figure, timeframe or procurement details were given in the statement. The remark comes amid ongoing debate over US defense spending and military stockpile levels.

TREE NEWS update: European Central Bank official Pedro Machado said he wants greater transparency in synthetic significant risk transfers (SRTs), the synthetic securitisation products used by banks to shift credit risk off their balance sheets. Machado did not specify what disclosure or structural changes he is seeking. The remarks put a spotlight on a fast-growing corner of bank risk-transfer markets.

TREE NEWS reports: The UK 10-year gilt yield rose 2.4 basis points to 5.367% on Monday, touching 5.434% intraday — its highest level since the third quarter of 2007 — as Bank of England rate-hike expectations drove the move. The 2-year yield climbed 7.6 basis points to 4.889%, while the 30-year fell 1.7 basis points and the 50-year dropped 3.1 basis points. The 2s/10s spread narrowed 5.263 basis points to +47.640 basis points.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin has traded within a roughly 5.5% range for more than 24 consecutive sessions, with about 840,000 BTC’s cost basis sitting in that band. Profit-taking has slowed sharply, pushing the seller risk ratio down to 7 basis points, among the lowest in the past year, though weak buying still caps a breakout. Leverage is clustered at both edges of the range, with about $1.95 billion in short liquidation risk near $82,000 and large long positions between $75,000 and $76,000.

TREE NEWS update: The European Union has drafted legislation aimed at protecting children online that would designate social media platforms, online games and chatbot tools as regulated targets. Companies covered by the draft would face penalties of up to 6% of global revenue for violations. The draft has not yet been adopted.

TREE NEWS update: Five rockets struck Sulaymaniyah province in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan Region early on the 14th, causing no casualties, the region’s security department said in a statement. A Kurdish security source said the rockets targeted a camp of Iranian Kurdish opposition forces. Authorities have opened an investigation. The region’s mountainous areas host several Iranian Kurdish opposition bases that have previously been hit by Iranian cross-border missile and drone strikes.

TREE NEWS update: Puig has agreed to acquire Isdin from Esteve for €1.2 billion. The deal, announced by the Spanish beauty and fragrance group, hands it the skincare brand currently owned by the Esteve pharmaceutical family holding. Financial terms beyond the €1.2 billion purchase price were not disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on the 14th in Rovaniemi, northern Finland, that Denmark hopes to find a solution with the United States on Arctic and Greenland issues through cooperation. Speaking after the European Arctic Summit, she said the high-level working group between the two countries is still at work and, while no conclusion has been reached, she is optimistic. She added that allied nations are conducting joint exercises in Greenland.

TREE NEWS update: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will reshuffle her cabinet on Nov 17, following a leadership shake-up within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Nov 16, LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki said. Suzuki announced the schedule during a program on NHK. The LDP executive personnel changes will precede the cabinet reshuffle by one day.

TREE NEWS reports: France’s 10-year government bond yield rose 2.2 basis points to 4.475% in late European trading on Monday, September 14, touching 4.531% intraday — its highest level since the third quarter of 2008. The two-year yield climbed 8.1 basis points to 3.483%, while the 30-year fell 3 basis points to 5.1%. Italian, Spanish and Greek 10-year yields also rose, to 4.390%, 3.985% and 4.264% respectively.

TREE NEWS reports: ICE UK natural gas futures closed Monday’s European session up 3.15% at 204.500 pence per therm, having touched 210.250 pence at 15:39 Beijing time. The Dutch TTF benchmark gained 2.82% to 82.415 euros per megawatt-hour, after reaching 84.531 euros. ICE EU carbon allowance futures rose 3.05% to 87.57 euros per tonne.

TREE NEWS reports: The US Energy Information Administration said the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by about 3.6 million barrels last week to 285 million barrels, the lowest level since 1982. The weekly draw leaves the emergency crude stockpile at its smallest in more than four decades.