Aurelia Butler

Sanctions have already cut off the supply of most aircraft and parts to Russia and forced its carriers to cancel many international flights for fear their aircraft will be seized by foreign lessors or banks.An official at Russia’s aviation authority said on Thursday China had refused to supply Russian airlines with aircraft parts, after Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Airbus halted supply of components.”Questions of supplies of spare parts from China and other Asian contries are being worked out,” said Alina Malysheva, director of the transport ministry’s legal support department, in a meeting with lawmakers from the Federation Council, the Russian parliament’s upper house. She said 739 of Russia’s 1,367 airplanes are currently registered abroad and that Russian aircraft may be able to be registered in Russia without being taken off foreign registers.”A decision on buying (planes) has not yet been taken,” Malysheva said. Russia on Thursday published a draft law that could prevent its airlines returning leased aircraft, raising the stakes in a showdown with Western finance over $10 billion of jets.The lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed the legislation on Friday at the first reading, which would offer relief to the transport sector in the face of sanctions.The law seeks to preserve the fleet of foreign aircraft with Russian operators and allows for changes in the way airworthiness certificates can be issued. More

VERSAILLES, France (Reuters) – European Union leaders will say on Friday they want to cut their dependence on global suppliers of food, microprocessors, drugs, raw materials and digital technologies, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine added a new argument for the EU to be more self-reliant.The 27-nation bloc has been considering how to become more independent in several strategic areas ever since the COVID-19 pandemic showed that a breakdown of global supply chains could leave the EU without access to pharmaceuticals or microchips.The war in Ukraine only made that more clear, EU officials said, as Europe will now struggle to wean itself off Russian gas, oil, coal and raw materials and possibly find alternative suppliers of wheat.”Confronted with growing instability, strategic competition and security threats, we decided to … take further decisive steps towards building our European sovereignty, reducing our dependencies,” a draft joint declaration of the leaders meeting in Versailles outside Paris, showed. The declaration said the EU would reduce its dependence on imported critical raw materials through strategic partnerships, stockpiling, recycling and resource efficiency.In semi-conductors the EU wants build its own factories and double its share of the global market to 20% by 2030, the draft said. Semi-conductors are now mainly bought from Taiwan and the United States. The EU will also make more pharmaceuticals in the bloc rather than importing them from China, invest in research and development in the health sector and in digital technologies like artificial intelligence, Cloud and 5G mobile telephony deployment, the document said.To become more independent in food, the EU will boost production of plant-based proteins, it said.It said the leaders want to finance such policies through the European and national budgets, using public money to attract much bigger private investment. They also want to use the European Investment Bank, which is owned by EU governments, “to catalyse investments, including higher risk-financing for entrepreneurship and innovation.”France and Italy have been pushing for the EU to agree to new joint debt issuance for the expected increased outlays, modelled on the EU’s 800 billion euros recovery fund, of which only 74 billion euros have been disbursed so far.But others like Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries oppose that, arguing the EU should first use the cash already agreed before borrowing more.The leaders will also declare that their fiscal policy will have to give them leeway for more spending on defence, investment and dealing with the negative economic effects of the war in Ukraine, the draft said. More

Investing.com — Russian forces are on the move again in Ukraine after being bogged down for a week. The humanitarian disaster there escalates, with the number of refugees now estimated at over 2.4 million. Oil jumps as talks to lift sanctions on Iran are paused, frustrating hopes for a quick increase in supplies of Iranian crude. Rivian stumbles after revising down its production guidance for this year. Chinese technology stocks are on course for their worst week in a year on revived fears of forced delistings from U.S. markets, and the company behind nickel’s big short says it wants to keep the position open. Here’s what you need to know in financial markets on Friday, 11th March.1. Summit “possible” but Russian war machine cranks up againThe Kremlin said a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is possible, raising hopes of a diplomatic resolution to a war that is now in its third week. Such hopes had taken a knock on Thursday after a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers broke up without visible progress. Elsewhere, EU leaders called for a full withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, setting a high bar for anything resembling a lifting of economic pressure on Russia. It also promised another 500 million euros ($555 million) in military assistance for Ukraine.On the battlefield, Russia stepped up airstrikes on western Ukraine, and its 40-mile long convoy that had been stuck north of Kyiv for the last week started moving again, dividing into two in what analysts said may be a prelude to an attack on the capital. Putin said he would deploy volunteers from Syria to fight in response to reports of foreign citizens seeking to join Ukrainian forces.The humanitarian disaster in Ukraine’s other cities continued, with the residents of Mariupol having to dispose of their dead in mass graves, while Russian artillery – which targeted a maternity unit earlier this week – struck a psychiatric hospital, according to Ukrainian officials. The UNHCR estimates that some 2.4 million refugees have now fled the country, the biggest such movement in Europe since World War 2.2. Oil jumps as Iran talks pausedOil prices rose as the talks around lifting sanctions on Iran were paused followed by concerns in Western capitals, especially Washington, that the concessions offered on its nuclear program are too high a price to pay for an increase in supplies of Iranian oil to world markets.The Biden administration has also sounded out Venezuela this week on ways to increase its supplies. Of more immediate concern, unwillingness – or inability – of U.S. shale companies to increase production, despite record-high prices. Baker Hughes’ rig count, which measures U.S. drilling activity, is due later.By 6:30 AM ET (1130 GMT), U.S. crude futures were up 2.0% at $108.43 a barrel, while Brent futures were up 2.3% at $111.84 a barrel.3. Stocks set to open higher; Rivian in spotlightU.S. stock markets are set to open higher Friday, in line with gains made in Europe on fresh hopes for diplomatic progress to the conflict.By 6:15 AM ET, Dow Jones futures were up 387 points, or 1.2%, while S&P 500 futures were up 1.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 1.6%.Stocks likely to be in focus later include EV-maker Rivian, which announced a wider loss in the fourth quarter and was forced to lower its production guidance for the year late on Thursday. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) stock is also lower in premarket after its third-quarter earnings missed forecasts due to higher operating costs and a weak performance by its equity investments.Also in focus will be Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) after news suggesting it will allow calls for violence against Russian officials and armed forces on its social media platforms, in breach of its usual policies.4. Chinese tech stock selloff deepens after SEC warningChinese technology stocks are on course for their worst week in a year, after a notice from the Securities and Exchanges Commission on Thursday revived fears that they may be forced to delist from U.S. stock markets.The SEC said ACM Research (NASDAQ:ACMR), fast-food giant Yum China, BeiGene (NASDAQ:BGNE), Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB) and HutchMed all risked being delisted in early 2024 unless they presented proper audit documents supporting their financial statements.The NASDAQ Golden Dragon China index, which tracks Chinese ADRs, fell 10% on Thursday, with individual names such as Nio (NYSE:NIO), Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD) losing between 8% and 20%. The index is now down some 68% from its high in February last year.Back in China meanwhile, officially registered new cases of Covid-19 breached 1,000 for the first time in two years. China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang also again expressed concern about Western sanctions on Russia, which look increasingly likely to cause a sharp slowdown in the world economy.5. Nickel’s big short wants to keep his position openThe London Metal Exchange Index said nickel trading will stay suspended through the end of the week as it struggles to deal with the backlash against its moves to protect its members.Tsangshin, the Chinese company whose massive short position was the root cause of the spike that forced the LME to suspend trading, said it wants to keep the position open, which may be just as well given that there is no agreement over what price it can be closed.Other base metals continued to push higher Friday amid continued uncertainty over the status of Russian supply. The chairman of mining giant Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin, warned that Russia’s current policies would take it back to 1917 – the year of the Bolshevik revolution. More