Weekly Market Update - 26 September 2022

Rallying Troops

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “partial mobilization,” calling up 300,000 reservists, in a major escalation of his flagging invasion of Ukraine. As Russia moves to annex occupied Ukrainian territory, he also renewed his nuclear weapons warning. Ukraine’s battlefield advances have been given a further boost by Russian troops abandoning scores of tanks as they fled, adding crucial weaponry to Kyiv’s arsenal. Meanwhile, world leader after world leader condemned Russia at a gathering in New York.

Source: Bloomberg

Hydrogen Race

China is leading the race to make the technology that’s vital for producing green hydrogen. Chinese factories can produce electrolyzers — which run an electric current through water, separating it into oxygen and hydrogen — at a fraction of the cost of US and European competitors. When powered by renewable energy, they can produce hydrogen gas to fuel everything from cars to steel mills without any carbon emissions. Orders for the systems are soaring as more industries seek to decarbonize and analysts see costs falling 30% by 2025 as manufacturers build up economies of scale.

Source: Bloomberg

Trump Probe

Donald Trump allegedly manipulated the value of a range of assets that inflated his net worth for years and defrauded banks, insurance companies and the Internal Revenue Service, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James. Her lawsuit against the former president, three of his adult children and others, provides granular details of what James described as a scheme that reaped about $250 million in benefits from lower interest rates on bank loans, favorable insurance rates and artificially low tax rates. After a years-long probe, James is seeking penalties including a permanent ban on the Trumps running companies in New York.

Source: Bloomberg