Green light for NATO membership has been given to Sweden. Donald Trump made violent statements. The Asia stock market is set to fall. Today is what you need to know.
The military alliance's expansion on Russia's doorstep was assured after Turkey dropped its opposition to their bids. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the move shows that NATO's door is open. The expansion shored up the alliance's weakest flank. As Russian President Vladimir Putin embarked on his first foreign trip since the invasion of Ukraine, it was reported that Russia had default on foreign debt for the first time in 100 years.
The most gripping testimony yet in a House committee's hearings on the Capitol was given by a former White House aide. She said that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent when he wasn't allowed to travel to the Capitol to join the insurrectionist mob on January 6, 2021. The full story can be found here.
As a report showed Americans growing more downbeat about prospects for the economy, a plunge in big tech weighed heavily on stocks, with gains in the broader market sputtering and Asia facing losses. Markets had been lifted by China reducing the time it takes for inbound travelers to be tested for Covid, but those concerns overshadowed the move. The risk that the US economy will tip into recession was downplayed by Federal Reserve officials.
The world's biggest automated port will be built in Singapore and will double the space and feature drones. The city-state started operations at two new berths last year and is continuing on the next phase.
The trade is called the widow-maker in Tokyo. While it has done nothing but saddle young, cocksure investors from London to New York with crushing losses over the past two decades, they are lining up again to take a shot. The bet is simple: that the Bank of Japan will have to abandon its 0.25% cap on benchmark bond yields and let them soar, just as officials in the US, Canada, Europe and elsewhere have done. Financial markets around the world have a lot at stake.
Wall Street fell overnight but they are still above their recent low. It seems more likely that investors in risk assets are responding to the peak in expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate increases than that inflation is peaking.
After the 75-basis-point hike from the US central bank, swaps traders dramatically reduced their expectations for the pace of further tightening. The Fed's target rate is expected to peak at about 3.5% in six months, far less than the peak seen just two weeks ago. Light may be the end of the tunnel if investors are hoping for it.
Garfield Reynolds is based in Australia.
Garfield Clinton Reynolds helped with the project.
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