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Oil prices spiked to their highest levels since 2008 on Monday after Secretary of State Andrew Blinken said the U.S. and its European allies were considering banning imports of Russian oil. The Biden administration has been facing pressure from Congress to impose energy sanctions on Russia, a move that the White House has resisted, citing concerns over their impacts on oil prices. That seemed to change over the weekend, when Blinken said on CNN that the U.S. and allies were looking “at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil, while making sure that there is a still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets.”Oil prices have climbed more than 25% over the last five sessions alone, the fastest price increase in a decade. Oil Takes Off With Ban on Russian Supplies on the Table Ma

Baidu, Inc. BIDU is scheduled to report fourth-quarter 2021 results on Mar 1.For the fourth quarter, the company expects revenues between RMB 31 billion ($4.81 billion) and RMB 34 billion ($5.27 billion), suggesting a growth rate of 2-12% year over year.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $5.15 billion, indicating growth of 11.1% from the year-ago reported figure.Further, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.49 per share, suggesting a decline of 51.6% from the prior-year reported figure. The consensus mark has been unchanged for the past 30 says.BIDU beat estimates in all the trailing four quarters, delivering an earnings surprise of 27.6%, on average.Baidu’s fourth-quarter revenues are expected to have been driven by strength in Baidu core owing to

A decision by Western allies on Saturday (Feb 26) to block "selected" Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system will inflict a crippling economic blow, but also cause much pain to their own companies and banks. And the allies still have room to do more. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a secure messaging system to ensure rapid cross-border payments which has become the principal mechanism to finance international trade.Russian banks denied access to SWIFT will find it harder to communicate with peers internationally, even in friendly countries such as China, slowing trade and making transactions costlier. But the allies, who also vowed curbs on Russian's central bank to limit its ability to support the rouble, have not yet said which banks would

Online food delivery group Meituan (3690.HK) led a rout of Chinese technology company shares on Friday, as authorities announced a series of regulatory moves to boost growth while keeping financial risks under control. China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), on Friday issued rules to promote a faster recovery from the pandemic in the services sector, including guidance for online food delivery platforms to reduce service fees to help to lower operating costs for catering businesses. Those rules were announced as the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission warned against using the metaverse as a tool for illegal fund-raising, saying that some companies were engaging in illegal fund-raising, fraud, and virtual real estate speculation. Investo

E-commerce sites operated by China's Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK) were included on the U.S. government's latest "notorious markets" list, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Thursday. The list identifies 42 online markets and 35 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy. China-based online markets Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo, and Taobao also continue to be part of the list, along with nine physical markets located within China "that are known for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of counterfeit goods," the USTR office said. Alibaba said it will continue working with government agencies to address concerns in intellectual property protection across it

Asian shares rallied on Wednesday as fears of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine this week dissipated after Moscow indicated it was returning some troops to base in an apparent de-escalation, delivering investors a measure of relief. The tension between world powers over the Ukraine situation, which has developed into one of the deepest crises in East-West relations for decades, has been front-and-centre of investors' minds. But while the immediate risk of a flare-up in tensions over Ukraine waned, some market watchers warned that save-haven assets could find a renewed bid in the case of new escalations over the conflict. There seems to be a growing belief that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is leaning on a diplomatic solution and the market has walked back some positioning placed for

Geopolitical worries have added another layer of volatility to an already-jumpy market as investors priced in the possibility of escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, though some doubted the issue would weigh on U.S. asset prices over the longer term. Reports of rising tensions between the two countries slammed stocks on Friday and lifted prices for Treasuries, the dollar and other safe-haven assets. Investors were already rattled by a hawkish turn from the Federal Reserve.The market is reacting because an actual invasion has not yet been priced in," said Michael Farr of Farr, Miller and Washington LLC. "The severity of an invasion, if one occurs, will correlate to the severity of the market’s reaction." The United States and Europe stepped up their warnings of an imminent attack

The consumer price index came in hotter than expected in January, as both the CPI inflation rate and the core rate, excluding food and energy, hit new 39-year highs. Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq losses deepened in Thursday afternoon stock market action as Wall Street priced in additional Fed rate hikes. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield crested 2% for the first time since August 2019 and kept on rising. The CPI rose 0.6% from the prior month and 7.5% vs. a year ago, the biggest annual gain since February 1982, the Labor Department said. The core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy categories, also rose 0.6% from December, while the annual core inflation rate rose to 6%. Most economists have been looking for inflation pressures to begin easing from current leve

UK lenders HSBC and Standard Chartered, which derive most of their profits in Asia, are trading near two-year highs in Hong Kong, as investors bet higher interest rates globally will bolster their bottom lines. Both lenders, alongside their industry peers, have seen their shares advance since the start of the new year as it became clearer that central banks, from the Federal Reserve to the Bank of England, would need to increase their policy rates to address a rapid rise in inflation.The rapid growth of Western economies as they recover from the coronavirus pandemic, alongside higher fuel costs, have contributed to rising costs of living. Recent government reports showed prices climbed the most in nearly 40 years in the US and by nearly three decades in the UK.Before the pandemic hit in ea

The U.S. economy created far more jobs than expected in January but despite the disruption to consumer-facing businesses from a surge in COVID-19 cases, pointing to underlying strength that should sustain the expansion as the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates. The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday also showed a whopping 709,000 more jobs were added in November and December than previously estimated. Wage gains accelerated last month and the labor pool expanded.The upbeat report ended days of anxiety among economists and White House officials who had frantically tried to prepare the nation for a disappointing payrolls number. Strong employment gains, accompanied by the biggest annual increase in wages since May 2020, pave the way for the U.S. centra