Russian Lenders Gazprombank, Alfa Bank Seek India's Approval To Set Up Branches, Sources Say

Philippine inflation slowed in November, supporting another cut in benchmark interest rates as a graft scandal shattered consumer and investor confidence.

Consumer prices rose 1.5% in November from a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Friday. That was lower than the 1.7% median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey and the 1.7% rate in October. It marked the ninth straight month that inflation came below the central bank's 2%-4% target.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona has said monetary authorities will consider another reduction in the benchmark interest rate next week to help spur demand, with inflation expectations more or less anchored. The policymaking Monetary Board will hold its rate-setting meeting on Dec. 11.

The ongoing graft scandal over flood infrastructure in the Southeast Asian nation has hit consumer demand and investor sentiment, causing economic growth to slump to a four-year low in the third quarter.

The central bank has slashed its key rate by 175 basis points since August last year. The overnight target reverse repurchase rate stands at 4.75%, the lowest since September 2022.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

Crude oil soared on Thursday as expectations of an end to the Russia-Ukraine war dimmed, with Russia adamant about holding the captured territories while Ukraine remains unwilling to cede the regions.

WTI Crude Oil for January delivery was last seen trading up by $0.70 (or 1.19%) at $59.65 per barrel.

In the series of ongoing efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the Russia-Ukraine war, after back-to-back talks with Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. envoy to Russia Steven Witkoff talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in Moscow for more than four hours.

The talks did not come close to the signing of a deal as Putin remains obstinate in retaining the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, especially the Donbas and Novorossiya region.

Ukraine has so far rejected demands for ceding its territories to Russia, a contention which Ukraine-friendly European nations have also supported. European leaders criticized Putin for being 'insincere' in his attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully.

With a compromise evasive, Trump sounded cautiously optimistic about the future outcome of his peace plan.

Today, Ukrainian officials are in the U.S. to discuss with their American counterparts on taking things to the next stage.

The U.S-imposed sanctions on Russian oil persist despite traders wanting the war to end soon and thereby see free flow of Russian oil into the market.

On the war front, Ukraine continues to target oil refineries in Russia and sea-borne Russian-flagged vessels.

Reuters reported that Ukraine struck the Druzhba oil pipeline in Russia's central Tambov region, damaging the Taganrog-Lipetsk section. Russia is yet to confirm this officially though.

Ukraine has conducted around 14 strikes on Russian refineries in November alone.

The crisis that erupted in South America after U.S. advanced its military preparedness to attack Venezuela is intensifying.

Accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of promoting narco-trafficking and human-trafficking, the effects of which penetrates into the U.S., the Trump administration is set for a military confrontation.

Dismissing Trump's allegations, Maduro accused the U.S. of eyeing its rich oil reserves under the pretext of curbing the illegal drug trade.

Though the tension has reduced a little after Maduro confirmed yesterday that he had a 'respectful and cordial' discussion with Trump around 10 days before, the threat has increased the risk premium for oil prices.

In their most recent meeting, the OPEC alliance reaffirmed last month's commitment to halt production increases for the first quarter 2026.

Bloomberg has reported that Saudi Arabian state producer Aramco has cut the price of its flagship Arab Light crude grade by 60 cents.

Owing to excess supply from the U.S. and production increases that OPEC commenced since this April, in 2025, oil prices have seen a fall of roughly 16%.

Potential oversupply concerns were precipitated after yesterday's U.S. Energy Information Administration data for the week ending November 28 showing an increase by 0.57 million barrels in crude oil inventories. The numbers also revealed a rise in gasoline and distillate stocks.

In the U.S., markets are decisively certain that Kevin Hassett, a supporter of low-interest rates would be Trump's preferred candidate to replace the current U.S. Federal Reserve Chair, next year. Alongside a slew of recent jobs data indicating weakness in the U.S. labor market, traders are pricing in a rate cut by the Fed next week.

Oversupply concerns and rate cut expectations limited the gains in oil prices.

Source: dpa-AFX

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrive for an informal dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence in New Delhi, India December 4, 2025. Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, aiming to boost trade with the top buyer of Russia's arms and seaborne oil as Western sanctions squeeze their decades-old ties.

Putin is on his first visit to India in four years at a time when New Delhi is engaged in talks with the U.S. for a trade deal to cut punitive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on its goods over India's Russian oil purchases.

Moscow has been India's top arms supplier for decades and has said that it wants to import more Indian goods in an effort to grow trade to $100 billion by 2030 that so far has been skewed in its favour due to New Delhi's energy imports.

Since European countries cut back their reliance on Russian energy after Russia invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago, India has ramped up its purchases of discounted Russian crude.

"India faces a conundrum; by taking steps to strengthen ties with Moscow or Washington, New Delhi risks setting back ties with the other," Michael Kugelman, senior fellow at Washington's Atlantic Council think tank, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine this week.

Modi and Putin are also expected to discuss other topics including labour and civil nuclear energy, with the sides expected to announce new agreements to showcase resilience of their relations.

HUGS AND HANDSHAKES

The Indian leader received Putin with a hug and handshake as he walked down the red carpet after arriving at an airport near New Delhi on Thursday for the two-day visit. Modi later hosted the Russian president for a private dinner at his residence.

A business and government delegation has accompanied Putin for the visit, including his defence minister, Andrei Belousov, who held talks with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on Thursday.

Belousov "stated that the Russian defence industry is ready to support India towards becoming self-reliant in the field of defence production," India's defence ministry said after the talks.

Putin arrived in India a day after holding talks with Trump's top envoys on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, but they did not reach a compromise.

India has resisted condemning Russia over the war and called for peace though dialogue and diplomacy, while saying that its ties with Moscow were being unfairly targeted by Western nations that continue to do business with Moscow when it is in their interest.

Source: Reuters

Florida's entire U.S. congressional delegation on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to leave their state out of a plan by his administration to expand oil and gas drilling to new coastal areas, saying it would threaten the state's military and tourism industries.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The letter to Trump from Florida Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody and the state's 28 members of the House of Representatives was a rare bipartisan pushback against the Republican president's policies. Most of Florida's members of Congress are Republicans.

KEY QUOTE

"The risks posed by new offshore drilling far outweigh any short-term gains," the lawmakers said in their letter.

BY THE NUMBERS

More than 50,000 jobs in the Florida Panhandle are tied to operations at military facilities connected to the Gulf Test Range, a vast area over the Gulf of Mexico where advanced weapons and air combat tactics are tested, the letter said, noting that drilling would result in encroachment of the Gulf Test Range.

Florida beaches generate $127.7 billion a year in tourism spending and support 2.1 million jobs.

CONTEXT

The Interior Department last month unveiled a proposal that opened the door to future leasing in the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, which has long been protected from energy development because it is used for military testing and training. Florida officials, including Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, have opposed changes to that policy.

Trump's Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, is on the eastern side of the state.

THE REPLY

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: Investing

A 2025 refrain many of us likely have heard would be: "You're buying that? You're doing that? In this economy?"

But this problem does not seem to extend to the world's most valuable company Nvidia, which is sitting on a problem most of us would like to have: having too much cash.

At the end of October, Nvidia had $60.6 billion in cash and short-term investments. That's up from $13.3 billion in January 2023, just after OpenAI released ChatGPT.

And this is even after splashing out billions of dollars on stakes in companies: $1 billion for Nokia, $5 billion for Intel, $10 billion for Anthropic—and a jaw-dropping $100 billion commitment to OpenAI still under discussion.

To add to this, Nvidia announced it would invest $2 billion in Synopsys this week.

Nvidia, which has gone from a niche maker of graphic cards to the world's most valuable company, has also made $37 billion in buybacks and dividends, with a further $60 billion authorised.

When your biggest challenge is figuring out how to spend $60 billion, you're living the ultimate corporate luxury.

To take a line from ABBA: "Money money money, must be funny, in Nvidia's world."

What you need to know today

Microsoft Office price hikes. Microsoft said Thursday that it will increase the prices of Office productivity software subscriptions for commercial and government clients on July 1. The company has been facing increased competition in recent years from Google.

Bitcoin falls, but it's normal. Bitcoin's more than 30% drop from its record high underscores volatility, but history shows that price swings are all part of bitcoin's normal operating pattern and may often precede a rally.

More departures from Apple. The firm's general counsel, Kate Adams, and Vice President for environment, policy, and social initiatives Lisa Jackson, are retiring from the company. This comes after the departure of its AI chief, and its chief operating officer's retirement.

Markets little changed. U.S. markets traded mixed Thursday stateside as investors assessed a report showing announced job cuts in November from U.S. employers surpassed 1 million for the year. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.5% higher.

[PRO] AI stocks at a reasonable price? Investors should turn to less explored pockets of the market to find stocks that are a play on the artificial intelligence boom but also offer growth at a reasonable price, Citigroup analysts say.

Ukraine, trade, pandas: What China's Xi and France's Macron discussed in Beijing

China said it was open to importing more goods from France in exchange for a "fair, conducive environment" for Chinese businesses in the European nation, President Xi Jinping told his counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Thursday as they met in Beijing.

The French president kicked off a 3-day visit to China on Wednesday — his first trip to Beijing in more than two years — on the heels of growing frictions over a range of topics including trade imbalance and the long-running war in Ukraine.

In a separate readout from the French government, Macron told Xi that the two countries must work together based on "a balanced relationship," while urging Beijing to help end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Source: CNBC

Japan's households unexpectedly cut spending for the first time in six months, in a sign of the fragility of domestic demand as the Bank of Japan prepares to consider raising borrowing costs later this month.

Outlays by households adjusted for inflation fell 3% in October from a year earlier, led by spending declines in transport and housing, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported Friday. Economists had expected a 1% gain.

Private spending is a key component in the BOJ's goal of achieving a virtuous economic cycle in which wage gains help fuel demand-led price increases. Domestic consumption has expanded for three straight quarters, albeit at a subdued pace.

The BOJ said in its October outlook report that private consumption will likely stay more or less flat for now before gradually returning to "a moderate increasing trend, with a continued rise in employee income." The negative number Friday will add an element of complexity as the BOJ moves toward its next rate hike, but isn't expected to derail that trajectory.

BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda gave a signal Monday that the board is moving toward a hike as soon as Dec. 19, by explicitly mentioning the fact that the bank will consider a rate hike. Overnight index swaps point to about a 90% probability of a December rate increase.

Consumption makes up more than half of Japan's gross domestic product and will be crucial to whether the economy returns to a growth path after recording the first contraction in six quarters during the summer.

Looking ahead, the strength of consumption will depend largely on the interplay between prices and wages. The nation's inflation gauge has stayed at or above the BOJ's 2% target for 43 months, the longest stretch since 1992. Data Monday may show that real wages fell for a 10th month in October, underscoring how steady gains in nominal pay aren't keeping up with price growth.

Source: Bloomberg Europe