Author: admin

*As of 12 December 2025. No rating Outlook currently assigned on Ukraine in selective default. Displayed are Outlooks on long-term issuer ratings in foreign currency. Source: Scope Ratings. Rating Risks Offset the Potential for Stronger Economic Growth, Fiscal Resilience Significant geopolitical and fiscal risks outweigh the potential positive effects from stronger growth and emerging pockets of fiscal resilience within the EU. Among potential tailwinds in Europe, possible gains may be linked to artificial intelligence-driven productivity gains and the implementation of reforms in Europe related to the Next Generation EU funding programme. In addition, many European sovereigns retain considerable funding flexibility,…

Wheat is down across most contracts on Monday morning. The wheat complex closed Friday with losses. Chicago SRW futures were down 4 to 5 cents in most contracts, as March was down 6 ½ cents on the week. Open interest on Friday was up 1,680 contracts. KC HRW futures were 4 to 5 cents on Friday, with March losing 13 ¼ cents since the previous Friday. OI rose 3,304 contracts on Friday MPLS spring wheat was fractionally lower to close Friday, with March up 2 ¾ cents on the week.Export Sales data for the week ending on November 20 will…

Memecoins are not dead because the market is down and the narrative has faded, according to president of payment infrastructure company MoonPay, Keith A. Grossman, who said that memecoins will be back but in a different form.The real innovation of memecoins is that attention can be tokenized easily and at low costs through blockchain technology, democratizing access to the attention economy, Grossman said. He continued:“Before crypto, attention could only be monetized by platforms, brands and a small group of influencers. Everyone else generated value and gave it away for free. Likes, trends, inside jokes and communities created massive economic value.”…

March arabica coffee (KCH26) on Friday closed down -6.90 (-1.83%), and January ICE robusta coffee (RMF26) closed down -84 (-2.00%).Coffee prices fell sharply on Friday, with robusta posting a 2.5-month low.  The outlook for ample coffee supplies is weighing on prices.  Last Thursday, Conab, Brazil’s crop forecasting agency, raised its total Brazil 2025 coffee production estimate by 2.4% to 56.54 million bags, from a September estimate of 55.20 million bags.   Don’t Miss a Day: From crude oil to coffee, sign up free for Barchart’s best-in-class commodity analysis.  Robusta coffee remains under pressure amid concerns about abundant supplies.  Vietnam’s National…

Standard Chartered and Coinbase have expanded their partnership to build crypto infrastructure for institutional clients. As part of the partnership, the duo will explore offerings across trading, prime services, custody, staking and lending, the British multinational bank announced on Friday. “We aim to explore how the two organisations can support secure, transparent and interoperable solutions that meet the highest standards of security and compliance,” Margaret Harwood-Jones, global head of financing and securities services at Standard Chartered, said. The two firms said the partnership combines Standard Chartered’s cross-border banking and custody expertise with Coinbase’s institutional crypto platform. The goal is to…

The perspective of Dennis Shen, Macroeconomic Council, Scope Ratings.

The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) on Friday closed down by -1.07%, the Dow Jones Industrials Index ($DOWI) (DIA) closed down by -0.51%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) closed down by -1.91%.  December E-mini S&P futures (ESZ25) fell -1.07%, and December E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQZ25) fell -1.94%.Stock indexes sold off sharply on Friday, with the S&P 500 posting a 1.5-week low, the Nasdaq 100 a 2-week low, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreating from a new all-time high.  Friday’s slump in technology shares weighed on the broader market. Join 200K+ Subscribers: Find out why the midday Barchart Brief newsletter is a…

Executive Heather Planishek has been appointed as CEO of Lambda, an AI cloud infrastructure provider. Planishek will lead Lambda’s global finance organization as the company continues to expand its infrastructure footprint and operations. Additionally, Planishek will oversee Lambda’s financial strategy, planning, accounting, treasury, investor relations, and business systems. As part of the transition, Planishek will be stepping down from her role at Lambda’s board of directors, after joining the board in July.  Prior to joining Lambda, Planishek most recently served as COO and CFO at Tines, the intelligent workflow platform.  Financial advisors Chris Sauve and Dominic Benetti have joined Cetera Financial and oversee about $147M in assets under administration at their Michigan-based firm Great Lakes Wealth Advisors. Sauve and Benetti joined Cetera after…

A group of crypto organizations has pushed back on Citadel Securities’ request that the Securities and Exchange Commission tighten regulations on decentralized finance when it comes to tokenized stocks.Andreessen Horowitz, the Uniswap Foundation, along with crypto lobby groups the DeFi Education Fund and The Digital Chamber, among others, said they wanted “to correct several factual mischaracterizations and misleading statements” in a letter to the SEC on Friday.The group was responding to a letter from Citadel earlier this month, which urged the SEC not to give DeFi platforms “broad exemptive relief” for offering trading of tokenized US equities, arguing they could…

The S&P 500 Index ($SPX) (SPY) on Thursday closed up by +0.21%, the Dow Jones Industrials Index ($DOWI) (DIA) closed up by +1.34%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index ($IUXX) (QQQ) closed down by -0.35%.  December E-mini S&P futures (ESZ25) rose +0.23%, and December E-mini Nasdaq futures (NQZ25) fell -0.33%.Stock indexes settled mixed on Thursday, with the S&P 500 posting a 6-week high and the Dow Jones Industrials climbing to a new all-time high. The broader market found underlying support on Thursday after bond yields moved lower amid a jump in weekly jobless claims, which is dovish for Fed policy.  Also, managed healthcare stocks staged a…