The U.S. dollar is actively declining against most world currencies on Monday morning as traders react to news about the bankruptcy of two U.S. banks.
The ICE-calculated index showing the U.S. dollar’s performance against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) fell 0.7% during this morning’s session.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0720 as of 8:33 a.m. Q, versus $1.0642 at the close of last Friday’s session, with the euro adding about 0.73%.
The pound sterling is up 0.65% and is trading at $1.2114 versus $1.2034 at the close of last session.
The dollar-yen exchange rate is down 0.45% to trade at 134.40 yen.
As reported, the U.S. bank Silicon Valley Bank has come under the management of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC will sell the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, which will allow payments on uninsured deposits. The bank’s bankruptcy was the largest since the 2008 financial crisis.
Regulators also shut down Signature Bank, a smaller New York bank that was popular with cryptocurrency holders.
Investors fear the problems at U.S. banks could spill over to the global financial industry, MarketWatch wrote. However, statements by regulators about their readiness to support the banking sector, including through the provision of concessional financing, have somewhat calmed market participants.
Also traders believe that against the background of problems in the financial sphere the Federal Reserve may soften its approach to the monetary policy, having made the decision to increase the key interest rate by 25 basic points at the March meeting instead of raising it by 50 bps.
Norwegian Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram has announced the decision to allocate $7.5 billion for assistance to Ukraine over the next five years.
According to the website of the Ukrainian defense ministry on Saturday, the head of the Norwegian defense ministry said this during a meeting on Friday with Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov during his visit to Kiev.
A corresponding program has been submitted to the Norwegian parliament for approval. Gram announced that Norway plans to transfer launchers, fire control points and missiles to NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine.
Reznikov discussed with Gram further consolidation of efforts in countering armed aggression by the Russian Federation and the implementation of bilateral projects to strengthen the capabilities of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
“The high-tech assistance provided by Norway is already successfully working to protect the civilian population of Ukraine. In particular, in repulsing the last mass rocket attack on critical infrastructure facilities on March 9. Our air defense soldiers successfully used it,” Reznikov noted.
WR Group plans to open five shopping centers in Drogobych, Truskavets and Lviv in 2023, company founder Petr Punyak said.
“We are developing the format of shopping centers in small towns. We plan to build five shopping centers this year, including in cities with a population of 100 thousand people. People travel less to regional centers because of expensive gasoline and roadblocks, so the flow of visitors to shopping centers in small towns has increased significantly,” he said at the workshop “The Retail Real Estate Market at War”.
So, in June 2023 the company intends to open two shopping centers in Drogobych and Truskavets.
The area of the Park Shopping Center in Drogobych will be 11.8 thousand square meters (10 thousand square meters of retail space), the tenants include Silpo, Jysk, Luxoptika, Master Zoo, Allo and Prostor. The vacancy rate of retail premises today is about 20%.
The area of SC “Vector” in Truskavets is 8,4 thousand square meters (7 thousand square meters of retail area), among tenants are “Silpo”, “Allo”, Rozetka, MOYO and others.
The other three complexes will be opened in Lviv, now there is an active work, said Punyak.
In 2022, WR Group has opened shopping centers Fabrik (26 thousand square meters), Maidan (22 thousand square meters) and LAZ-695 (12 thousand square meters) in Lviv.
“About $ 60 million we have invested in three shopping centers in 2022. If we talk about this year, we also invested about $50-60 million in three shopping centers,” – Punyak told Interfax-Ukraine, specifying that his company is working with a group of investors and real estate management.
Next year the company is planning to focus on opening 3-5 thousand sq.m. shopping malls in small towns with up to 30 thousand people.
WR Group is a diversified real estate company. The company’s portfolio has eight completed projects, 107.3 thousand square meters of commercial and 57.6 thousand square meters of office space. Seven more complexes with a total area of 131.5 thousand square meters are under development and construction.
Oil prices are showing moderate growth on Monday morning after a sharp decline last week.
The cost of May futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 7:02 a.m. is $83.11 per barrel, which is $0.33 (0.4%) higher than the price at the close of the previous session. As a result of trading last Friday, these contracts rose by $1.19 (1.5%) to $82.78 per barrel.
The price of WTI futures for April in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is currently $77.01 per barrel, which is $0.33 (0.43%) higher than the final value of the previous session. Last Friday, the contract rose in price by $0.96 (1.3%) to $76.68 per barrel.
At the end of last week, Brent fell by 3.6%, WTI – by 3.8%.
The main negative factor for the oil market last week was the fear of a more aggressive monetary policy of the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank would have to raise rates more than previously expected to fight inflation.
In addition, on Friday it became known that the American bank Silicon Valley Bank came under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC will sell the assets of Silicon Valley Bank, which will allow it to make payments on uninsured deposits.
“Fears of further tightening of the SAR and risks in the financial industry have raised concerns about demand,” said Charu Chanana, market strategist at Saxo Capital Markets Pte. Charu Chanana, a market strategist at Saxo Capital Markets Pte.
Meanwhile, the number of operating oil rigs in the United States last week decreased by 2 units to 590, according to oilfield services company Baker Hughes. The number of rigs declined for the fourth week in a row, updating the lowest level since June last year.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has included Credit Agricole Bank into the list of systemically important banks following its annual review, thus increasing the number of banks on the list to 15.
As stated in the NBU`s resolution No.95 “On Determination of Systemically Important Banks” dated March 8, it also includes A-Bank, Credobank, OTP Bank, Oschadbank, Pivdenniy Bank, PrivatBank, PUMB, and Raiffeisen Bank.
Sens Bank, TAScombank, Ukrgasbank, Ukreximbank, Ukrsibbank, and Universal Bank (mono) are also on the list.
As of February 1, 2023, Credit Agricole Bank ranked 11th out of 67 operating banks by total assets (UAH 81.03 billion). At present, the number of operating banks has dropped to 65.
Mobile bank izibank, created on the basis of TAScombank, in March-April plans to start selling domestic government bonds, as well as to start “payment by installments,” said the founder and CEO of izibank Anna Tigipko to Interfax-Ukraine agency on the sidelines of the Digital lending conference in Kiev.
“We also launch military bonds. Even before the war we started working on investment products, but we wanted to make foreign shares first. But the regulator forbade this. So we decided to focus on the domestic market and firstly work on OVGZs: military and not only military, and provide this to the client,” Tigipko said.
She said that izibank, unlike a number of other similar projects, will provide the client with an opportunity to buy government bonds in the secondary market through the exchange.
Also, in March and April for the mass izibank customers will be available the installment service, functioning in beta-version, and the service “payment in installments. Tigipko refused to disclose the partners of the project, whose goods and services can be paid for in installments, promising to do so a few months after the final agreements are made.
According to the CEO, izibank resumed issuing retail loans from about September 2022 after the restoration of the main registries, although the requirements for borrowers have become stricter and “the funnel has narrowed. She noted that today 90% of the bank’s new customers are registered through Bank ID in the Diya app, whereas even relatively recently it was only 50%.
In this regard, izibank does not plan to resume the issuance of cards through bank branches, which was suspended due to the full-scale Russian invasion, as most of the bank’s customers design and use virtual bank cards. The physical card, if desired, is sent to the client by mail, said Tigipko.
At the end of last year, the total number of izibank customers was estimated at about 300 thousand
