Category: Uncategorized

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Panama’s Supreme Court has torpedoed CK Hutchison’s 25-year port concession, citing constitutional breaches and an audit that tallied at least $1.3 billion in lost state revenue. The ruling imperils a planned $23 billion sale of the Hong Kong group’s global port assets, freezes China’s only foothold at both ends of…

Evening Analysis – The Gist The sudden arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group and three destroyers in CENTCOM waters adds roughly 40,000 U.S. troops, stealth fighters and Tomahawks to a region already bristling with missiles—Washington’s heaviest build-up since its June 2025 strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.(ft.com) Trump frames the “armada” as leverage for…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Gold breached $5,300 /oz overnight, its largest one-day jump on record—$220—to $5,301.60, as futures traders piled into the only dollar-denominated asset investors still trust. (wsj.com) The move crowns a 22 % YTD surge driven by a 1.5 % slide in the trade-weighted greenback and record central-bank buying. Citi now calls…

Evening Analysis – The Gist The S&P 500 raced past 7,000 points for the first time today—just nine months after it cleared 6,000 and barely three years after 5,000—underscoring how liquidity-fueled tech euphoria now propels global benchmarks faster than any real‐economy metric. (ft.com) Yet technology stocks already make roughly half the index’s weight, and Nvidia…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Washington’s abrupt decision to hike tariffs on South Korean autos, lumber and pharmaceuticals from 15 % to 25 % landed after midnight Brussels time, rattling Seoul and wiping up to 5.9 % from Hyundai-Kia shares while knocking the won lower. The White House says the National Assembly is “stalling” on…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Washington’s draft security-guarantee accord for Ukraine—declared “100 percent ready” by President Zelenskyy after trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi—marks the first concrete U.S. commitment to Kiev’s post-war defense since 1994’s ill-fated Budapest Memorandum. (apnews.com) Yet the text remains hostage to a larger bargain: U.S. envoys hint the guarantees will activate only…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Europe has finally pulled the plug on the Kremlin’s last big energy lever. Yesterday the EU Council rubber-stamped a law that outlaws all Russian LNG from 1 January 2027 and shuts pipeline flows by 30 September 2027. Russian gas already shrank from 40 % of EU supply in 2021 to…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Good evening, Indonesia’s pre-dawn landslide on Java’s Mount Burangrang has exposed once again the lethal geometry between climate volatility, unchecked hillside development and military encroachment. Seventeen bodies have been recovered, at least 70 people—among them 19 elite marines—remain missing, and 34 homes lie entombed beneath up to 8 metres of…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Israel’s vow to reopen Gaza’s Rafah crossing—only after it recovers the remains of its last hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili—reveals how a single body can bottleneck a cease-fire meant to stabilise a region of 2 million people. AP confirms the army’s “large-scale” cemetery searches, while the Guardian notes cabinet assent…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Russian missiles and 375 drones shattered Ukraine’s grid overnight, plunging 1.2 million homes into sub-zero darkness and wounding dozens in Kyiv and Kharkiv.(aljazeera.com) The scale—two rare Tsirkon ballistic missiles, 25 drones on a single city, 600 buildings without heat—confirms Moscow’s winter playbook: weaponise energy to erode civilian morale and erode…