Igor Kuchma

Markets ended the week on a negative note, dampening initial optimism after inflation rose 3.2% in July, slightly below the 3.3% forecast. But shouldn’t it be the other way around, since positive data portends a Fed policy review? In short, no. First, because of the sharp rise in oil and gasoline prices, prices have actually […]

Goldman Sachs & Co’s upward revision of its year-end forecast for the S&P 500 has opened a can of worms or Pandora’s box, whichever way you want to look. First, Fitch Ratings suddenly realized that all was not well with the U.S. economy, which led to downgrading the country’s rating from AAA to AA+. Next, […]

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to the highest level since 2001, but the economy is growing, and bullish investors dominate the markets entirely. Could it be that the Fed has finally learned from past mistakes and recessions are a thing of the past, opening the way to new all-time highs? While it’s hard to […]

Russia has officially withdrawn from the grain agreement, which means the guarantees of safe navigation and the humanitarian maritime corridor in the northwest of the Black Sea have been canceled. However, there is a glimmer of hope as the Kremlin is open to reconsidering the agreement if their demands are met. The President of Turkey […]

The week starts with concerning news from China. The country’s GDP growth in the second quarter was only 6.3%, falling short of the expected 7.1% year-on-year growth. In the first half of the year, GDP increased by 5.5%. The retail sector showed a significant improvement, with a growth rate of 8.2% compared to just 0.7% […]

Although the PCE index, closely watched by the Federal Reserve, fell to 4.2% year-on-year in March from 5% in February, core inflation, which excludes food and energy, came in at 4.6% year-on-year, only 0.1% lower than in February. The situation in the energy markets is also not encouraging: the further rise in oil prices triggered […]

The US economy grew by 2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs forecasts for the second quarter are also encouraging. The Nasdaq index achieved its best first half since 1983, with a cumulative gain of almost 32% as of last Friday. Will Biden be remembered as the best president in US history? Not necessarily. For […]

It has been an intense week, especially in geopolitical terms. For starters, the Ukrainian president admitted that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is “slower than expected.” Asked how the conflict could end, Zelenski stated that Kyiv would not sit down at the negotiating table as long as Russian troops remained on the territory. However, according to German […]

For the first time since March 2022, the Fed is taking a pause, leaving the possibility of a rate hike at the July meeting: if there is no significant progress in reducing inflation and cooling labor markets or the economy falls into recession, the rate could be 5.5-5.75%. Overall, the macroeconomic picture remains mixed: while […]

What ECB members were trying to avoid has come true: the EU has entered a technical recession, with two quarters in negative territory. The reason for the dubious achievement has been the sharp rise in energy prices, cuts in public and household spending, as well as falling inventories. However, the European authorities are not panicking […]