Concerns over the ongoing economic slowdown are growing among financial markets. In the US, the Nasdaq index plunged on Friday by more than 4% on the back of concerns about rising interest rates and softer business updates from tech giants (notably Amazon). It finally recorded its sharpest monthly drop since October 2008 in April. China’s pledge to stabilize…
The European power spot prices remained impressively flat from the previous day yesterday, with a continuous German wind shortage offset by a strong solar generation, fading power demand and improving Belgian nuclear availability. The day-ahead prices averaged 227.99€/MWh in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, -2.15€/MWh day-on-day. The carbon prices traded sideways on Thursday, decreasing…
Oil prices rallied on Thursday. The ICE Brent front-month end the day at $107.59/b a 2.1% increase and NYMEX WTI front-month closed 3.3% higher at $105.36/b. The move was triggered by the comment of the German Economy Minister who said that Germany, a country that was reliant on oil deliveries from Russia, would be able to…
European gas prices dropped yesterday as the impact of the halt in Russian deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria started to fade. The strong LNG supply in Europe has returned to the fore, driving spot prices significantly down in the markets that benefit from high LNG imports (UK, France, Spain). The drop in coal prices (-4.43%…
Surprising contraction of the US GDP in Q1 (-1.4% qoq annualised): as expected, inventories contributed negatively to growth, as did public spending, but it was above all foreign trade that weighed on growth, with a very sharp rise in imports (+17.7%) and a decline in exports (-5.9%). But the core of growth, private domestic demand (consumption,…
