Biden gifts long range missiles to Ukraine

Russia has said it will regard the United States decision to gift long range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine as escalation, with senior Russian senators calling the move “an unprecedented step towards world war 3”.

Strong words from the Kremlin however Vladimir Putin is yet to formally comment on the decision from President Biden, with many seeing the move as a precaution from President elect Trump to restricting arms to Ukraine in efforts to de-escalate tensions in the new year. Trumps famously vowed during his campaign that he would end conflict in the region in one day, without sharing details on how. Trumps choice for U.S Treasury Secretary is due to be announced this week, with Howard Lutnick (Elon Musk’s preference) and Billionaire Marc Rowan top candidates.

The Dollar has continued its dominant form of late, making further gains against the Yen this morning as Governor Ueda left investors guessing on the timing of rate hikes, with no mention on whether a hike would come in December. After last week’s comments from Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, traders are currently pricing in a 62% chance of a rate cut next month, as we await another string of FED speakers this week. Gold has recovered from its worst week in three years this morning rallying 1% as the market looks for clues from policymakers rhetoric.

This week sees the UK Inflation Report on Wednesday, after last week’s disappointing GDP figure Rachel Reeves will be hoping for a reduction in prices. G20 Leaders will meet in Rio De Janeiro today, where for the first time in 6 years, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Starmer will try to restore relations with the world’s second largest economy after staunch Tory critics in Rishi Sunak’s government left tensions with the Chinese leader, with the Tories claiming Starmer is “kowtowing” to China.

Finally, business leaders are pushing PM Starmer to prioritise moving the UK closer to the EU in a “Brexit reset” rather than focusing on incoming President Trumps proposed trade wars. UK Stocks are also rallying higher this morning after its worst weekly run since June.

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