Raindrops hang on a sign for Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., October 26, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
A look at the day ahead in markets from Julien Ponthus.
It’s the final day of trading of April and it does look like despite the fireworks on Wall Street last night, this month bears sombre omens for what’s to come, notably with Asian shares on the verge of their worst month since the COVID-19 March 2020 crash.
It’s even worse for the Nasdaq (.NDX) which is on course for its biggest losses in a month since the financial crisis of 2008.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
For all the enthusiasm surrounding the earnings of Meta Platforms (FB.O), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) delivered a disappointing quarter while Apple (AAPL.O) had dire news to share with the market after the bell, despite record profits and sales. read more
COVID-19 lockdowns snarl production and demand in China and the iPhone maker warned that the war in Ukraine, which led Apple to stop sales in Russia, would cut sales more deeply in the fiscal third quarter.
Overall, the S&P 500 has had a terrible ride so far in 2022, losing roughly 10% of its value, wiping off four trillion dollars in market capitalisation.
And it’s hard to ignore the dotcom bubble flavoured ‘irrational exuberance’ whiff that surrounds Elon Musk’s $44 billion cash deal for Twitter, particularly when the social media reported revenue and ad sales that fell short of expectations. read more
There’s also been plenty of puzzling market moves lately. The dollar enjoyed its best month in a decade and hit its highest level in 20 years but data showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter. read more
Of course, with investors betting on a 50 basis point interest rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week, a U.S. aggressive monetary tightening remains the driving force across financial markets for the foreseeable future.
In that light, it is not surprising that a warning from Japan’s Ministry of Finance failed to deter the dollar from cruising above 130 yen for the first time since 2002.
Perhaps not surprising either that the euro, weakened by the Russian gas standoff, also felt the might of the greenback and fell to a five-year low of $1.04 even as 10-year German bund yields rose 10 basis points with German inflation hitting its highest level in more than 40 years.
Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Friday:
-French economic growth stalls in first quarter, misses forecasts read more
-BASF confirms earnings guidance but flags risks
-Danske Bank Q1 net profit below expectations read more
-Swiss National Bank’s annual general meeting of shareholders
-China to step up policy support to steady economy read more
GDP
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Julien Ponthus
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine – a dramatic escalation of U.S. funding for the war with Russia – and for new tools to siphon assets from Russian oligarchs.
The vast funding request includes over $20 billion for weapons, ammunition and other military assistance, as well as $8.5 billion in direct economic assistance to the government and $3 billion in humanitarian aid. It is intended to cover the war effort’s needs through September, the end of the fiscal year.
“We need this bill to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” Biden said at the White House after signing the request on Thursday. “The cost of this fight – it’s not cheap – but caving to aggression is going to be more costly.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
The United States has ruled out sending its own or NATO forces to Ukraine but Washington and its European allies have supplied weapons to Kyiv such as drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles.
Biden also wants the ability to seize more money from Russian oligarchs to pay for the war effort.
His proposal would let U.S. officials seize more oligarchs’ assets, give the cash from those seizures to Ukraine and further criminalize sanctions dodging, the White House said.
The proposed steps include letting the Justice Department use the strict U.S. racketeering law once deployed against the mafia, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, to build cases against people who evade sanctions.
Biden also wants to give prosecutors more time to build such cases by extending the statute of limitations on money laundering prosecutions to 10 years, instead of five. He would also make it a criminal act to hold money knowingly taken from corrupt dealings with Russia, according to a summary of the legislative proposals.
U.S. President Joe Biden during a speech in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 21, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
The measures are part of U.S. efforts to isolate and punish Russia for its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, as well as to help Kyiv recover from a war that has reduced cities to rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.
Biden has already asked for record peacetime sums to fund Pentagon research and development, and efforts to counter perceived threats from countries including Russia.
The full package represents a fifth of pre-war Ukrainian annual economic output, and the $20 billion U.S. military assistance alone is about a third of what the Russian military spent overall last year, before the war began.
A package would include food security assistance, economic stimulus for Ukraine and funding to use the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of key minerals in short supply due to the war. read more
But the funding measure may face issues on Capitol Hill. Biden asked for $22.5 billion in money for the COVID-19 response in March and Democrats with narrow control of the Senate and House of Representatives may push to have that passed at the same time as the Ukraine measure.
While lawmakers are broadly supportive of spending on Ukraine, Republican congressional aides said on Thursday that efforts to combine the war funding with the pandemic response could make it difficult to pass.
“I don’t care how they do it,” Biden said. “They can do it separately or together, but we need them both.”
U.S. military aid to Ukraine alone has topped $3 billion since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and remove fascists in Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext.
The United States and its European allies have frozen $30 billion of assets held by wealthy individuals with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and art, the Biden administration has said.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alistair Bell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
‘Our retaliatory strikes will be lightning fast’ says Putin
Russia assaults east
Demonstrations against Russian occupation in south
Putin wants occupation as ‘cancerous growth’ in Ukraine, UK says
KYIV, April 28 (Reuters) – Russia stepped up its assaults on eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv said on Thursday, and President Vladimir Putin threatened “lightning-fast” retaliation against any Western countries that intervene on Ukraine’s behalf.
More than two months into an invasion that has flattened cities but failed to capture the capital Kyiv, Russia has mounted a push to seize two eastern provinces in a battle the West views as a decisive turning point in the war.
“The enemy is increasing the pace of the offensive operation. The Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire in almost all directions,” Ukraine’s military command said of the situation on the main front in the east.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
It said Russia’s main attack was near the towns of Slobozhanske and Donets, along a strategic frontline highway linking Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv with the Russian-occupied city of Izyum. The Kharkiv regional governor said Russian forces were intensifying attacks from Izyum, but Ukrainian troops were holding their ground.
Although Russian forces were pushed out of northern Ukraine last month, they are heavily entrenched in the east and also still hold a swathe of the south that they seized in March.
Ukraine said there were strong explosions overnight in the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital Russia has captured since the invasion. Russian troops there used tear gas and stun grenades on Wednesday to suppress pro-Ukrainian demonstrations, and were now shelling the entire surrounding region and attacking towards Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih, President Vladimir Zelenskiy’s southern home city, Ukraine said.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of planning to stage a fake independence referendum in the occupied south. Russian state media quoted an official from a self-styled pro-Russian “military-civilian commission” in Kherson on Thursday as saying the area would start using Russia’s rouble currency from May 1.
Western countries have ramped up weapons deliveries to Ukraine in recent days as the fighting in the east has intensified. More than 40 countries met this week at a U.S. air base in Germany and pledged to send heavy arms such as artillery for what is expected to be a vast battle of opposing armies along a heavily fortified front line.
Washington now says it hopes Ukrainian forces can not only repel Russia’s assault on the east, but weaken its military so that it can no longer threaten neighbours. Russia says that amounts to NATO waging “proxy war” against it.
“If someone intends to intervene in the ongoing events from the outside, and create strategic threats for Russia that are unacceptable to us, they should know that our retaliatory strikes will be lightning-fast,” Putin told lawmakers in St Petersburg.
“We have all the tools for this, things no one else can boast of having now. And we will not boast, we will use them if necessary. And I want everyone to know that.”
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Putin’s remarks were a sign of “almost desperation, trying to broaden this either with threats or indeed, with potential false flags or attacks”.
“Having failed in nearly all his objectives,” Putin was now seeking to consolidate control of occupied territory, Wallace said. “Just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country in Ukraine and make it very hard for people to move them out of those fortified positions.”
Ukrainian troops are still holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol, the ruined southeastern port where thousands of people have died under two months of Russian siege and bombardment. Putin claimed victory in the city last week, ordering the steel works blockaded. Kyiv has pleaded for a ceasefire to let civilians and wounded soldiers escape.
“As long as we’re here and holding the defence… the city is not theirs,” Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, told Reuters in video link from an undisclosed location beneath the huge factory.
“The tactic (now) is like a medieval siege. We’re encircled, they are no longer throwing lots of forces to break our defensive line. They’re conducting air strikes.”
More than 5 million refugees have fled abroad since Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow says its aim is to disarm its neighbour and defeat nationalists there. The West calls that a bogus pretext for a war of aggression.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks on Thursday in support of Ukrainians, the White House said.
While Russia presses its military assault in eastern and southern Ukraine, its economic battle with the West threatens gas supplies to Europe and is battering the Russian economy.
On Wednesday, Moscow halted gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria for refusing to pay for supplies in roubles, its first big retaliatory strike against sanctions. The president of the European Commission called the move “blackmail”.
“The sooner everyone in Europe recognises that they cannot depend on Russia for trade, the sooner it will be possible to guarantee stability in European markets,” Zelenskiy said in an overnight address.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Reuters journalists, Writing by Peter Graff, Editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
UNITED NATIONS, April 27 (Reuters) – Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney urged countries at the United Nations on Wednesday to focus on international justice for war crimes in Ukraine so evidence does not sit in storage – as it has done for victims of Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
“Ukraine is, today, a slaughterhouse. Right in the heart of Europe,” Clooney told an informal U.N. Security Council meeting on accountability in Ukraine, organized by France and Albania.
Clooney recalled a 2017 Security Council vote to approve a measure she helped lobby for – the creation of a U.N. team to collect, preserve and store evidence of possible international crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq. It was the same year her son and daughter with U.S. actor George Clooney were born.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“My children are now almost 5, and so far most of the evidence collected by the U.N. is in storage – because there is no international court to put ISIS on trial,” she said.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which handles war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression, has no jurisdiction because Iraq and Syria are not members.
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney attends an informal meeting of the United Nations Security Council, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., April 27, 2022. REUTERS/David ‘Dee’ Delgado
Read More
Clooney is part of an international legal task force advising Ukraine on securing accountability for Ukrainian victims in national jurisdictions and working with the Hague-based ICC.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan opened an investigation into Ukraine a week after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. read more
“This is a time when we need to mobilize the law and send it into battle. Not on the side of Ukraine against the Russian Federation, or on the side of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, but on the side of humanity,” Khan told the U.N. meeting.
Russian diplomat Sergey Leonidchenko described the ICC as a “political instrument.” He accused the United States and Britain of hypocrisy for supporting the ICC inquiry in Ukraine after doing “everything imaginable to shield their own military.”
Moscow describes its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation” and denies targeting civilians.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova’s office has told Reuters it is preparing war crimes charges against at least seven Russian military personnel. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Richard Pullin
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 27, 2022. REUTERS/Blair Gable
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
April 27 (Reuters) – Canadian lawmakers voted unanimously on Wednesday to call Russia’s attacks in Ukraine a “genocide”, with members of parliament saying there was “ample evidence of systemic and massive war crimes against humanity” being committed by Moscow.
The Canadian House of Commons’ motion said war crimes by Russia include mass atrocities, systematic instances of willful killing of Ukrainian civilians, the desecration of corpses, forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, torture, physical harm, mental harm, and rape.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was “absolutely right” for more and more people to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine as genocide, supporting an accusation made by U.S. President Joe Biden a day earlier.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Biden had said earlier in April that the Ukraine invasion amounted to genocide but had added that lawyers internationally would have to decide whether or not the invasion met the criteria for genocide.
Russia, which denies the genocide charges, calls its action in Ukraine a “special military operation” and said it was necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia. Moscow in turn accuses Ukraine of the genocide of Russian-speaking people, a charge that Ukraine dismisses as nonsense. read more
Canada is among a number of countries to have imposed sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. On Wednesday, it imposed further sanctions on 203 individuals whom it says are complicit in Russia’s attempted annexation of certain areas of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Late on Wednesday, Canada also updated its travel advice for Moldova, citing the risk of armed conflict in Transnistria, a breakaway Russian-occupied part of Moldova in the west.
The government of Canada asked travelers to exercise a high degree of caution in Moldova and avoid all travel to Transnistria.
The Canadian government has also said it will change its sanctions laws to allow for funds or property seized or sanctioned from Russia to be paid out to help rebuild Ukraine or to those affected by Russia’s invasion. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler and Jacqueline Wong
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
CHISINAU, April 27 (Reuters) – Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria said on Wednesday that shots were fired from Ukraine towards a village that houses an ammunition depot, the latest report to raise concern that Russia’s war in Ukraine might expand.
The interior ministry of the unrecognised region that borders southwestern Ukraine said in a statement that several drones had been detected flying over the village of Cobasna overnight and they had come from Ukraine.
It said shots were later fired towards the border village from Ukrainian territory on Wednesday morning. It gave no further details, but said nobody had been hurt.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Russia has a contingent of troops in Transdniestria guarding many tonnes of ammunition stored in the region since before the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Moscow also has peacekeepers there after a conflict between separatist and Moldovan forces.
Transdniestria’s interior ministry cited “experts” as saying that Cobasna holds the biggest ammunition depot in Europe.
Moldova’s government did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the statement from Transdniestria.
Ukraine has accused Russia of trying to mastermind false flag attacks in the region, including explosions that damaged two radio masts on Tuesday. read more The region itself blames the attacks on Ukraine.
The Kremlin said it was seriously concerned by the developments. The Russian foreign ministry was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying it wants to avoid a scenario in which Moscow would have to intervene there.
The statements have put Moldova on edge.
“We need to make financial and logistical efforts to build a professional army, modern and well-equipped,” said Moldovan President Maia Sandu.
“We are going through a very difficult period for our country, but investments in the army are very necessary, they are needed for infrastructure, for the security and defence of the state,” she said.
Moldovan authorities said that queues of cars and trucks had formed on the road out of Transdniestria into the rest of Moldova because of tougher controls at checkpoints that Transdniestria had brought in on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar accused Russia of being ready to use Transdniestria as a bridgehead to move on Ukraine or the rest of Moldova.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk;
Writing by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Angus MacSwan, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WARSAW/SOFIA/KYIV, April 27 (Reuters) – Russia halted gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract on Wednesday, data from the European Union network of gas transmission operators showed, in a deepening of the rift between the West and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Bulgaria, like Poland a NATO and EU member, said earlier that Russia would also halt supplies of gas to it. There was no word early on Wednesday if Bulgaria’s supplies were also cut.
Ukraine accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt to break its allies, as fighting heads into a third month without Russia capturing a major city.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Staunch Kremlin opponent Poland is among the European countries seeking the toughest sanctions against Russia for invading its neighbour.
Poland’s gas supply contract with energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) is for 10.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year, and covers about 50% of national consumption.
Poland’s state-owned PGNiG (PGN.WA) had said supplies from Gazprom via Ukraine and Belarus would be cut at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Wednesday, but Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76% full.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on “unfriendly” countries to pay for gas imports in roubles, a demand only a few buyers have implemented.
“The ultimate goal of Russia’s leadership is not just to seize the territory of Ukraine, but to dismember the entire centre and east of Europe and deal a global blow to democracy,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday.
His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Russia was “beginning the gas blackmail of Europe”.
“Russia is trying to shatter the unity of our allies,” Yermak said.
Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of the arrangement.
It has held initial talks to import liquefied natural gas through neighbouring Turkey and Greece.
Gazprom said it had not yet suspended supplies to Poland but that Warsaw had to pay for gas in line with its new “order of payments.” It declined to comment regarding Bulgaria.
The invasion of Ukraine, launched on Feb. 24, has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.
Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists.
Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext for an unprovoked war to seize territory in a move that has sparked fears of wider conflict in Europe unseen since World War Two.
Russia’s ambassador to the United States has warned Washington to stop sending arms to Ukraine, saying that large Western deliveries of weapons were inflaming the situation.
More than 40 countries met in Germany on Tuesday to discuss Ukraine’s defence.
Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters while flying to Tuesday’s meeting that the next few weeks in Ukraine would be “very, very critical”.
Germany announced on Tuesday its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including Gepard tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns. read more
Ukrainian pleas for heavy weapons have intensified since Moscow shifted its offensive to the eastern region of Donbas, seen as better suited for tank battles than the areas around the capital Kyiv where much of the earlier fighting took place.
A series of blasts were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in the Russian city Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and an ammunition depot in the province was on fire.
Gladkov said no civilians had been hurt by the fire which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village. Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province.
The Belgorod province borders Ukraine’s Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.
Fighting continued in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian farmers in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia which borders the front line are wearing body armour to plough their fields. read more
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had “liberated” the entire Kherson region in southern Ukraine and parts of the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, Interfax news agency reported. If confirmed, that would represent a significant Russian advance.
Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a huge Soviet-era monument in the centre of Kyiv meant to symbolise friendship with Russia, according to the city’s mayor.
The eight-metre (27-ft) bronze statue depicted a Ukrainian and Russian worker on a plinth, holding aloft together a Soviet order of friendship. The statue was under a giant titanium “People’s Friendship Arch”, erected in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union.
“We now see what this ‘friendship’ is – destruction of Ukrainian cities … killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now,” Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday that he was ready to fully mobilise the organisation’s resources to save lives and evacuate people from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Reuters journalists; Writing by Costas Pitas and Michael Perry; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien, Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
CHISINAU, April 26 (Reuters) – Moldova’s president convened an urgent security meeting on Tuesday after two blasts damaged Soviet-era radio masts in the breakaway region of Transdniestria, where authorities said a military unit was also targeted.
The Moldovan authorities are sensitive to any sign of growing tensions in Transdniestria, an unrecognised Moscow-backed sliver of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, especially since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russia has had troops permanently based in Transdniestria since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kyiv fears the region could be used as a launch pad for new attacks on Ukraine. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“In the early morning of April 26, two explosions occurred in the village of Maiac, Grigoriopol district: the first at 6:40 and the second at 7:05,” Transdniestria’s interior ministry said.
No residents were hurt, but two radio antennae that broadcast Russian radio were knocked out, it said.
Separately, Transdniestria’s Security Council reported a “terrorist attack” on a military unit near the city of Tiraspol, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. read more
It gave no further details.
The incidents followed a number of blasts that local television reported on Monday hit Transdniestria’s ministry of state security in the regional capital, Tiraspol. Local officials said the building had been fired on by unknown assailants with grenade launchers. read more
Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Tuesday called for a meeting of the country’s Supreme Security Council in response to the incidents.
“The Supreme Security Council will meet from 1300 (1000 GMT) at the Presidency. After the meeting, at 1500, President Maia Sandu will hold a press briefing”, the president’s press office said in a statement.
On Monday, the Moldovan government said the Tiraspol blasts were aimed at creating tensions in a region it had no control of.
Last week, a senior Russian military official said the second phase of what Russia calls its “special military operation” included a plan to take full control of southern Ukraine and improve its access to Transdniestria. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Alexander Tanas, writing by Tom Balmforth and Alessandra Prentice, editing by Timothy Heritage
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
U.S. eyes ammunition for howitzers, tanks, grenade launchers
UK to send ambulances, fire engines and medical supplies
LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV, April 26 (Reuters) – Russia told the world not to underestimate the considerable risks of nuclear war that it said it wanted to reduce and warned that conventional Western weapons were legitimate targets in Ukraine, where battles raged in the east.
“The risks now are considerable,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russia’s state television according to a transcript of an interview on the ministry’s website.
“I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Lavrov had been asked about the importance of avoiding World War Three and whether the current situation was comparable to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a low point in U.S-Soviet relations.
Russia had lost its “last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter after Lavrov’s interview. “This only means Moscow senses defeat.”
During a visit to Kyiv on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised more military aid for Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department on Monday used an emergency declaration to approve the potential sale of $165 million worth of ammunition to Ukraine. The Pentagon said the package could include artillery ammunition for howitzers, tanks and grenade launchers. read more
Moscow’s ambassador to Washington told the United States to halt shipments, warning Western weapons were inflaming the conflict. read more
Lavrov said: “NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”
Russia’s two-month-old invasion of Ukraine, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced over 5 million people to flee abroad.
Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West says this a false pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression by President Vladimir Putin.
The United States is due to host an expected gathering of more than 40 countries this week for Ukraine-related defence talks that will focus on arming Kyiv, U.S. officials said.
Britain said all tariffs on goods coming into the country from Ukraine under an existing free trade deal will be axed and it would send new ambulances, fire engines, medical supplies and funding for health experts to help the emergency services.
Russia has yet to capture any of the biggest cities. Its forces were forced to pull back from the outskirts of Kyiv in the face of stiff resistance.
“It is obvious that every day – and especially today, when the third month of our resistance has begun – that everyone in Ukraine is concerned with peace, about when it will all be over,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Monday.
“There is no simple answer to that at this time.”
Having failed to take the capital Kyiv, Moscow last week launched a massive assault in an attempt to capture eastern provinces known as the Donbas, which if successful would link territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles destroyed six facilities powering the railways that were used to deliver foreign weapons to Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region. Reuters could not verify the report. read more
The head of Ukraine’s state rail company said that one railway worker had been killed and four injured by Russian missile strikes on five Ukrainian railway stations on Monday.
Ukrainian forces have repelled five Russian attacks and killed just over 200 Russian servicemen, said the Ukrainian military command in the southern and eastern sectors.
Five tanks were also destroyed, along with eight armoured vehicles, it said in a statement
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the reports.
Russian forces were continuing on Monday to bomb and shell the vast Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where fighters are hunkered down in a city ravaged by a siege and bombardment, Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych said.
Moscow said it was opening a humanitarian corridor to let civilians out of the plant but Kyiv said no agreement had been reached.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Reuters journalists; writing by Costas Pitas and Michael Perry; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Stephen Coates
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON/LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) – European stocks slid to a one-month low and commodity prices dropped on Monday on renewed concerns about rising interest rates and China’s sputtering economy, while Wall Street shares rose, reversing losses after Twitter agreed to be bought by billionaire Elon Musk.
Fears over China’s COVID-19 outbreaks spooked investors already worried that higher U.S. interest rates could dent economic growth. U.S. shares were lower throughout most of the session, extending last week’s sharp declines. The CBOE Volatility index (.VIX) known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, hit the lowest level since mid-March.
Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), shares rose on news that Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, clinked a deal to pay $44 billion cash for the social media platform populated by millions of users and global leaders. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
After news of the deal, Wall Street reversed course on a late rally by growth stocks, and the Nasdaq ended sharply higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.7% to end at 34,049.46 points, while the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 0.57% to 4,296.12.
The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) climbed 1.29% to 13,004.85.
“You can tell growth wanted to rally all day but the market was holding it down. The Twitter news came and that was just a green light to start buying some of the growth names. They have been oversold for a while,” said Dennis Dick, a trader at Bright Trading LLC.
Earlier, Europe’s STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) dropped 1.8% to close at its lowest since mid-March. Commodity stocks slumped 6%, as global worries overshadowed relief from French presidential results on Sunday which saw Emmanuel Macron edge past far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
MSCI’s benchmark for global equity markets (.MIWD00000PUS) fell 0.41% to 668.85. Emerging markets stocks (.MSCIEF) fell 2.61%. Overnight, Asian markets had their worst daily decline in over a month on fears Beijing would go back into a COVID-19 lockdown.
“Stocks’ rebound from the first quarter correction has hit a wall of rising long-term interest rates,” Morgan Stanley’s Chief Investment Officer Lisa Shale said in a note.
“With the Fed talking about a faster and larger balance sheet reduction than anticipated, real yields are approaching zero from their deeply negative territory. With the nominal 10-year U.S. Treasury cracking 2.9%, the equity risk premium
has plummeted.”
The euro slid 0.9%, near the session’s trough and its weakest level since the initial COVED panic of March 2020.
“The reality is there is more to the French election story than Macron’s win yesterday,” said Rabobank FX strategist Jane Foley.
France will hold parliamentary elections in June, and Macron also seems likely to maintain pressure for a Europe-wide ban on Russian oil and gas imports, which would cause near-term economic pain.
“We had German officials saying last week that if there was an immediate embargo of Russian energy then it would cause a recession in Germany. … that would drag the rest of Europe down and have knock-on effects for the rest of the world,” Foley said.
French presidential election results Results for the French presidential elections, second-round vote
State television in China had reported that residents were ordered not to leave Beijing’s Chatoyant district after a few dozen COVID cases were detected over the weekend. read more
China’s yuan skidded to a one-year low while China stocks saw their biggest slump since the pandemic-led panic-selling of February 2020. .SSE
The dollar index rose 0.65% and climbed to a two-year high. It touched a peak of $1.0695 against the euro .
Investors wonder how fast and far the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates this year and whether that and other global strains will tip the world economy into recession.
This week will be packed with corporate earnings. Almost 180 S&P 500 index firms are to report. Among big U.S. tech companies, Microsoft and Google report on Tuesday, Facebook on Wednesday and Apple and Amazon on Thursday.
In Europe, 134 of the Stoxx 600 will put out results, including banks HSBC, UBS and Santander on Tuesday, Credit Suisse on Wednesday, Barclays on Thursday and NatWest and Spain’s BBVA on Friday.
“I wonder whether just meeting expectations will be enough, it just feels like maybe we’ll need a bit more,” said Rob Carnell, ING’s chief economist in Asia, referring to jitters about big tech following a dire report from Netflix last week.
World stocks suffering one of worst ever starts to a year
FEAR FACTOR
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (.HSI) fell 3.7% and the Shanghai composite index (.SSEC) slid over 5% .
China’s central bank had fixed the mid-point of the yuan’s trading band at its lowest level in eight months, seen as an official nod for the currency’s slide, and the yuan was sold further, to a one-year low of 6.5092 per dollar .
The higher dollar pushed spot gold 1.7% lower by 4:53 p.m. EST (2053 GMT). U.S. gold futures settled nearly 2% lower at $1,896. Palladium prices were down nearly 10% on worries over Chinese demand.
In oil, Brent crude closed 4% lower at $102.32 a barrel and U.S. crude settled down 3.5% at $98.54, its first close below $100 since April 11.
Euro zone bond yields fell.
Money markets are pricing in a 1 percentage point increase in U.S. interest rates at the Fed’s next two meetings and at least 2.5 points for the year, which would be one of the biggest annual increases ever.
This week will also see the release of U.S. growth data, European inflation figures and a Bank of Japan policy meeting, which will be watched for any hints of a response to a sharp fall in the yen, which has lost 10% in about two months.
The only way is up!
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Bansari Mayu Kamdar, Noel Randewich, Tom Westbrook; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Catherine Evans, Mark Heinrich, Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
