As for the news that the US has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine, you can read about that without me.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg (remember, this is the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, opponents of Trump, and notorious Russophobes) reports that Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and a number of other banks are advising their clients to invest in financial instruments tied to Russia.
Yes, yes, I understand that for their clients, this is not a long-term investment but rather a kind of fun speculation: like, while the news is buzzing about Russia's strengthening, let's try to profit from the ruble's rise.
Just think about how this sounds to their clients: "How about investing in the currency of a country that mainstream media has been vilifying and painting as absolute evil for 3 years (actually, longer)?" And I’m more than sure their clients are like, "Hmm, why not?" 🤔
Among the instruments Goldman and JPMorgan are offering are ruble derivative contracts, which allow speculating on the ruble's exchange rate without violating sanctions.
This is done through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs), which enable their clients to profit from the ruble's rise!
The massive renewal of investor interest in Russian assets is taking place against the backdrop of a possible easing of sanctions against Russia and a warming of relations between Russia and the United States I’ll remind you that the ruble has surged by 20% since the beginning of the year—more than any other currency in the world! The key thing to understand here is that due to the ban on direct dealings with the Russian currency, these instruments have become a legal alternative for Western investors.
This is also due to the fact that Europe has bought more oil and gas from Russia over the past year than it spent on Ukraine during almost the entire special military operation.
Moreover! Only Western investors have to go through such contortions with all sorts of derivatives. Financial bigwigs in the Middle East are much more at ease, buying up Russian corporate bonds in bulk.
According to a Bloomberg source, the most in-demand assets are dollar and euro bonds from Russian companies like Gazprom and Lukoil. Some of their clients, who recently considered these securities almost worthless, are now rushing to buy them before prices rise.
Interestingly, shortly before Trump's call to Putin, Goldman was already recommending clients to go long on the Kazakh tenge.
As Crimson writes:
"Goldman is recommending the tenge because their clients don’t have access to the ruble. The ruble, in this sense (if you look purely short-term), has an advantage: the ruble's interest rate is higher (21% > 14%), but at the same time, I’m not so sure that there are as few speculators betting on the ruble's rise against the dollar as there are in the tenge."
Don’t pay attention to what they say, watch where they put their money...
...And the money is going to Russia!
Against the backdrop of the rapid rise of the Russian currency, the unstable policy of Trump towards the rest of the world represents a real threat to the role of the US dollar as the central currency in the global economy over the past five decades, stated former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers in an interview with Bloomberg (see second paragraph).
Moreover, the sell-off of stocks in the US at the beginning of this week may be evidence of investors' concerns about the direction of the new US administration's policy.
🍒Cherry, the European Central Bank has once again lowered its growth outlook for the European economy: the EU economy is expected to grow by 0.9% in 2025, instead of the previously projected 1.2%.
"The economy continues to face challenges... The downward revision reflects a decline in exports and an ongoing slump in investments, partly driven by high uncertainty in trade policy, as well as broader geopolitical uncertainty,"
this article does not constitute investment advice!