Business

By Devik Jain and Anisha Sircar

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes fell on Friday, dragged down by shares of Apple and Tesla, while a solid jobs report supported the view that the Federal Reserve would continue on its aggressive policy tightening path to cool decades-high inflation.

Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors declined in early trade, with consumer discretionary losing 2.2% and technology falling 1.6%. The energy sector was an outlier with a gain of 1%.

The Labor Department’s closely watched report showed nonfarm payrolls rose by 390,000 jobs last month and wages grew solidly, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.6% – all signs of a tight labor market.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast nonfarm payrolls to rise by 325,000 jobs.

“(This report) gives permission to the Fed to keep going with their rate hikes because the labor market is strong. They can worry more about inflation pressures and less about the labor market,” said Anthony Saglimbene, global market strategist at Ameriprise Financial.

“The market is still concerned about wage inflation. Even at 0.3% that is still a very high rate. If wage inflation was lower the market reaction could be more positive.”

Volatility has gripped Wall Street in recent weeks due to hawkish comments from Fed officials, even as a recent set of data suggested that inflation may have peaked.

The blue-chip Dow has fallen 9% so far this year, the benchmark S&P 500 has lost 13%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq has shed 22.7%, with rate-sensitive growth stocks bearing the brunt of the selloff.

“The selloff over the last few weeks could be a floor, but we do not see a lot of rationale for markets to rally materially. We will be within a trading range because the markets are waiting further information,” said Alan McKnight, chief investment officer at Regions Private Wealth.

At 10:20 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 161.21 points, or 0.48%, at 33,087.07, the S&P 500 was down 43.57 points, or 1.04%, at 4,133.25, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 207.54 points, or 1.68%, at 12,109.36.

Apple Inc slid 3.0%, hit by a bearish brokerage comment and a report that EU countries and lawmakers were set to agree on a common charging port for mobile phones, tablets and headphones on June 7, a proposal that has been fiercely criticized by the iPhone maker.

Tesla Inc dropped 7.0% after CEO Elon Musk, in an email to executives seen by Reuters, said he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy and needs to cut about 10% of jobs at the electric carmaker.

Micron Technology also fell 7% after Piper Sandler downgraded the memory-chip maker’s stock to “underweight”, citing concerns about its heavy exposure to mobiles and PCs at a time when rising inflation forces consumers to rein in spending.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 3.58-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.79-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 1 new 52-week high and 29 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 18 new highs and 43 new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar, Medha Singh, Devik Jain and Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru, Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Aditya Soni)

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(Reuters) – The European Union has expanded sanctions against Russia and added the National Settlement Depository, which Moscow planned to use to service the country’s Eurobonds, to the list of sanctioned entities, an EU document showed on Friday.

Russia said this week it was replacing Citibank, which has stopped servicing the country’s Eurobonds, with its own National Settlement Depository (NSD), as it risks its first major external debt default in more than a century.

After a key U.S. waiver allowing Russia to service its Eurobonds in original currency of issuance expired last week, Moscow proposed paying Eurobond holders by applying the mechanism it uses to process payments for its gas in roubles.

Under the plan, which was to be presented this month, Russia wanted foreign bondholders to open rouble and hard currency accounts at a Russian bank which would then convert roubles into forex and pay bondholders back via the NSD.

NSD, a Russian version of western clearing houses Euroclear and Clearstream, holds 70 trillion roubles ($1.12 trillion) worth of client assets, including 9 trillion roubles of foreign securities such as Eurobonds linked to the Russian state.

Neither NSD, nor the finance ministry replied to Reuters requests for a comment on EU sanctions.

“This make it impossible to sell foreign stocks held at the NSD but given that the NSD and Euroclear have suspended cooperation earlier, some of investors were unable to make any deals… anyway,” Promsvyazbank said in a note.

($1 = 62.2690 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Christina Fincher)

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By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. trade negotiations with Taiwan could move more quickly than broader talks with 12 Indo-Pacific countries given strong interest in Taipei and Washington in deepening economic ties, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi said on Thursday.

There are parallels between the newly launched Indo-Pacific Economic Framework talks and the Taiwan talks, Bianchi told Reuters in an interview, but the latter initiative is aimed at increasing links with Taiwan on specific economic issues.

“I think we are eager to get going with Taiwan and to scope out our negotiating mandate there and … a range of issues from small-medium enterprises to digital trade to labor and we look forward to getting going as quickly as possible,” Bianchi said.

Asked if the Taiwan initiative could bear fruit sooner then the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) talks, she said: “Potentially yes, it could.”

The Chinese-claimed island was excluded from the 14-country IPEF initiative launched last week by President Joe Biden. However, USTR announced separate, bilateral trade talks with Taiwan on Wednesday. [L1N2XO0YC]

IPEF, which seeks to return an economic pillar to U.S. engagement in the region, will include Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia and other countries in the region, but not China.

Bianchi said IPEF would also get started right away, with plans for discussions, including ministerial-level meetings in coming months to organize the topics for the talks and to begin proposing texts for an agreement by the end of the summer.

CHOOSING PILLARS

The IPEF talks will allow member countries to choose among the key “pillars” in which they will participate, including digital trade rules, supply chain resiliency and trade facilitation, infrastructure development and strong labor rights and environmental standards.

But participation in all pillars is not required, and initial meetings will focus on defining which ones countries will choose, Bianchi said. Countries that choose only one or two can still have meaningful engagement with the United States and other IPEF members, she said.

Neither the IPEF nor the Taiwan talks will include the tariff reductions and enhanced market access offered by traditional free trade agreements.

Bianchi said IPEF is meant to be a “21st century agreement to really address 21st century problems,” including barriers to digital trade such as data localization requirements or onerous regulations that make it difficult for companies to operate in some countries. Fixing these problems will also enhance market access, she said.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

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By Kanupriya Kapoor

(Reuters) – Asian shares rose broadly on Friday morning after softer-than-expected U.S. employment data raised the possibility of the Federal Reserve turning less aggressive on its policy tightening stance in coming months.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.45%, riding on a strong Wall Street close overnight. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.96%, and shares in Seoul opened up 0.77%, while Australia’s resource-heavy index was up 0.81%.

Overnight, tech stocks led a rally on Wall Street, lifting the S&P500 1.84%, the Nasdaq Composite 2.68%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.29%.

On Thursday, the ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. payrolls rising at a slower-than-expected pace last month.

Investors are now looking to the U.S. Labour Department’s comprehensive jobs report, due later on Friday, for confirmation of a slowdown in the employment market, which could convince the Federal Reserve to go slow on interest rate hikes for the rest of the year.

“For equities right now, anything that might be viewed as capping the Fed’s tightening could be viewed as supportive,” said ING’s Asia head of research Rob Carnell.

“So, therefore, weak macro data becomes positive for stocks.”

Economists expect about 325,000 jobs were added last month in the United States and reckon unemployment ticked lower to 3.5%.

“Any deviation from these figures that shows the labour market hanging together better than this might well be negative for equities and vice versa,” Carnell said.

Inflation is the biggest worry for the Fed and global policymakers. Fed officials have said that U.S. interest rates would likely continue to be raised aggressively unless inflation moderates.

“Front-end rate hike pressure that had built the day prior on robust economic data immediately eased off after a weaker than expected May ADP employment print, suggesting things are cooling off,” said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.

Markets have locked in consecutive 50-basis-point Fed hikes in June and July but the dollar has been pushed around this week by uncertainty about what happens after that.

The U.S. dollar currency index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was 0.039% lower at 101.71, pausing a rally earlier in the week.

The yen has been kept under pressure by super-low interest rates in Japan, and was last steady at 129.80 per dollar, having lost 2% on the greenback this week.

U.S. Treasury yields were mixed ahead of the non-farm payrolls data.

The benchmark 10-year yield was at 2.9168% while the 2-year yield, which tends to be sensitive to U.S. rate expectations, was down at 2.6438%.

Oil prices ticked up after U.S. crude inventories fell amid high demand, even as oil-producing countries OPEC+ agreed to boost production. Brent futures were up 0.09% at $117.72 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $116.94.

To read Reuters Markets and Finance news, click on https://www.reuters.com/finance/marketsFor the state of play of Asian stock markets please click on:

(Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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By Devayani Sathyan

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank will raise rates by a modest 25 basis points for a second straight meeting in June, still opting to move more slowly than most of its peers in a campaign to bring down soaring inflation, a Reuters poll of economists found.

With the economy recovering smartly from the pandemic and inflation at a 20-year high of 5.1%, well above a 2-3% target range, the Reserve Bank of Australia has only recently changed its tune on the need to raise interest rates.

The median forecast in the May 26-June 2 Reuters poll of 35 economists showed the RBA will lift its official cash rate by another 25 basis points to 0.60% from the current 0.35% at its June 7 meeting.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents, 22 of 35, forecast rates at 0.60%, while 11 predicted a 40 basis point increase to 0.75%, where rates were before the pandemic. Only one expected a 50 basis point hike to 0.85% and one other expected no move.

But at a time when many of its peers, including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve have already delivered more than one 50 basis point rate increase, some analysts say the RBA is moving too slowly.

“The question worth pondering is this: Does it make sense to raise rates in 25 basis point increments when the inflation rate is so far above target, and so far above the level of policy rates? Or does it make more sense to front-run the early tightening?” asked Rob Carnell, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at ING.

In the past, the RBA has cited relatively low wage inflation, which has lagged overall inflation, as a justification for not joining the global tightening cycle. But that argument no longer holds for some.

“Labour market indicators suggest that 25 basis point rate hikes may not be enough to bring inflation swiftly back within the RBA’s target range,” said Carnell.

Among major local banks, CBA and NAB are expecting a 25 basis point hike on Tuesday while ANZ and Westpac are looking for 40 basis points.

Interest rate futures are fully priced for 0.60% at the meeting, and imply rates could reach 2.75% by Christmas, well ahead of expectations in the poll. [RBAWATCH]

Still, economists do expect the RBA to pick up the pace a bit, doubling rates by end-September to at least 1.25%. Seven of 35 economists forecast rates at 1.25%, nine forecast 1.35% and seven expected it to reach 1.50% or higher by then.

But economists were exceptionally split on where rates will end 2022, with a range of 1.00%-2.60%.

Nearly 60% of respondents, 20 of 35, expected rates at 1.75% or higher by end-year, including eight saying 1.75%, two at 1.85% and 10 at 2.00% or more.

“The market has never got this far ahead of RBA rhetoric. That doesn’t mean market pricing is wrong, but it is another indication of the disconnect with the RBA,” said David Plank, head of Australian economics at ANZ who expects the cash rate to reach 2.50% by the middle of next year.

That is well below current market pricing of 3.00%.

“Of course the market has been proven right in its long-held conviction the RBA would be tightening in 2022 rather than holding off until 2024,” he added.

(Reporting and polling by Devayani Sathyan; Editing by Ross Finley, Kirsten Donovan)

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(Reuters) – Calling high inflation the Federal Reserve’s “number one challenge,” Vice Chair Lael Brainard on Thursday said she backs at least a couple more half-point interest rate hikes, with more on tap if price pressures fail to cool.

“Market pricing for 50 bps potentially in June and July…seems like a reasonable path,” Brainard told CNBC. September is less clear, she said. “But if we don’t see the kind of  deceleration in monthly inflation prints…then it might well be appropriate to have another meeting where we proceed at the same pace.”

The Fed has raised interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point this year, and most Fed policymakers back raising interest rates another half of a percentage point at each of their next two meetings. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic has suggested that by September the Fed ought to pause to assess the state of the economy before tightening policy further.

Brainard said that’s unlikely.

“Right now it’s very hard to see the case for a pause,” she told CNBC. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do to get inflation down to our 2% target.”

Brainard is typically seen as among the Fed’s more dovish members, but in her new role as the Fed’s vice chair – she was sworn in last month – her remarks are better seen as conveying the view of the core Fed leadership.

Policymakers next meet in mid-June, and this week is the last where they are free to speak publicly before their regular pre-meeting communications blackout.

“We are certainly going to do what is necessary to bring inflation back down,” Brainard said on Thursday. “That’s our number one challenge right now. We are starting from a position of strength, the economy has a lot of momentum.”

(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Lindsay Dunsmuir;Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Forbes Under 30 Summit in Jerusalem Brings Together Israeli, Palestinian Entrepreneurs

400 young leaders from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa share ideas and challenges

The annual Forbes Under 30 Summit EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) was held this week in Israel for the fifth time.

The four-day summit gathered over 400 top young entrepreneurs from 34 countries, including most of those on the Forbes Under 30 List, to learn, connect and create in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The event also hosted many Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs, companies, and projects to share ideas, build bridges, and work to understand each other.

Thomas Nides, US ambassador to Israel, said at the event, “The fact that many of you, who are successful young entrepreneurs, have come here to work with others and share your wisdom about your success, that is cool.”

He added that the only way for a two-state solution to work is to make sure that the Palestinians, from the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza, have a sense of connection as entrepreneurs. “If we lose that, we lose everything,” Nides said.

Dr. Erel Margalit, founder and executive chairman of the Jerusalem Venture Partners international venture capital firm and of the Margalit Startup City creative campus, told The Media Line, “The significance of today’s event is that we have both Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs working together.”

Jerusalem is seeing the region’s next chapter becoming a reality, he said.

We are doing this in Jerusalem, where you have many Arabs and Jews, Margalit continued. “When this is the city of diversity, when you have so many religious and secular people who are working together to open the next chapter in this region from the city of Jerusalem, that’s a big deal.”

Tomer Cohen is co-founder and co-CEO of Tech 2 Peace, which works to connect young Palestinian and Israeli leaders through high-tech, dialogue, and entrepreneurship training.

The group has been doing just that for more than three and a half years, he told The Media Line. “We have over 350 Palestinian and Israeli alumni, many of them working together in various projects,” he added.

The seminars and events that Tech 2 Peace organizes change young Israelis’ and Palestinians’ perspectives, Cohen said. They teach them that everyone can be an entrepreneur and that they can see the people on the other side as potential business partners.

Tech 2 Peace’s goal is to have 9,500 Israeli and Palestinian alumni by 2025.

If the NGO achieves this, said Cohen, “we will have enough people in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tel Aviv, and the various peripheral cities who will be invested in working with the other side and promoting better social and economic change by understanding the other side and working with it.”

Margalit said that for the last 20 years, “we have been working with the Arab community on educational projects with entrepreneurs. This is the place for cooperation; we have been doing this quietly.”

He said he doesn’t deny the problematic events, but that underneath, “there is a lot of cooperation, and many of us here in Jerusalem see the next chapter already happening.”

Zada Haj, CEO and co-founder of Abu Dhabi-based DANA Ventures, a startup accelerator, and an alumna of Tech 2 Peace, also attended the summit. She is a Palestinian Israeli who founded a venture capital company together with a Jewish Israeli and a Jewish American woman. DANA Ventures acts as an accelerator for women-led startups in the fields of agrotech, food tech, circular economy, and waste management.

“We focus on the sustainability aspect and a positive impact for the environment, and the MENA region where we help startups to scale up in the Middle East and North Africa and emerging markets,” she said.

Haj added that the company has startups in Gaza, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.

The region, women’s leadership, and climate challenges, the issues where Dana Ventures is trying to make a difference, need strong companies to get that done, she said.

We believe in rhinos, not unicorns, Haj said, “because unicorns don’t exist, and in our region and our climate change crisis, we need very strong creatures and businesses, and this is what we believe in.”

“Rhino” is a British slang term for money; in business, a “unicorn” is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.

She added that political conflicts won’t stop the company from continuing to unite entrepreneurs from different backgrounds.

DANA Ventures began working with its first cohort last May, when there was the 11-day conflict between Israel and Gaza, she said.

To illustrate her point, Haj recalled, “One of the startups was from Gaza, and during the interview with them, Shirley [one of DANA Venture’s founders in Israel] told them: ‘Sorry, I have noise behind me.’ The other guy answered, ‘Sorry I have rockets behind me,’ and two days later, they signed with us.

“This shows that nothing will stop us from creating mutual collaboration and ventures and scaling up for the better of everyone,” Haj said.

Lina Zahayka, 25, is co-founder and CEO of Greeners, a Palestinian startup based in Jenin, in the West Bank, that uses carbon dioxide emissions to create eco-friendly sustainable fertilizers through a patented formula, in an effort to reshape the agriculture sector.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict sometimes creates obstacles, Zahayka told The Media Line. She mentioned the differences in culture and language, the logistics of getting in and out of the West Bank, and the political views that sometimes get in the way.

She added, however, that the company has two Israeli mentors who help to overcome these issues.

Sometimes “we can’t prevent these political conflicts from coming out at the table. It happens here and there, but we’re not having any problems with it,” Zahayka said.

Margalit said that Saudi Arabia is “the next big thing in the region.”

Israeli companies are already making their presence known in the kingdom, he said.

There are companies there selling cybersecurity products to banks, health care IT products to allow governments to better deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, water treatment facilities, alternate protein agriculture, and fintech products, Margalit noted.

The fact that Israel is working together with locals in a variety of Middle Eastern cities is creating a foundation for the next, diplomatic, phase, he said.

He said he likes it when business comes first, “when entrepreneurs come together, and the young entrepreneurs who are under 30, the nice thing about them, is they don’t see any obstacles, they think they can connect, and just like entrepreneurs around the world can connect, entrepreneurs in the region can connect and make a big difference,” Margalit said.

It prepares the ground for the politicians, he said.

Randall Lane, Forbes chief content officer and responsible for the Forbes Under 30 Summit EMEA, explained to The Media Line why he has chosen to hold it in Israel over and over again.

Obviously, he said, “the Startup Nation, Israel, is such an unbelievable country in terms of the startup energy, in terms of entrepreneurial energy.”

Therefore, Lane continued, “for several years we’ve been bringing the top young entrepreneurs from the Forbes Under 30 List to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to just bathe in the entrepreneurial culture, and the history.”

Israel is a very good place to bring people to think about how to be even more entrepreneurial and to understand the challenges that entrepreneurs can help to create solutions for, he said.

“We’re trying to inspire people to go back and be more entrepreneurial,” Lane said. “The Startup Nation has a lot to teach the world.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — China, the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide that causes global warming, has seen a notable dip in its emissions over the past three quarters — but it’s not clear how long the drop will continue.

A new analysis of China’s economic data shows that carbon emissions dropped 1.4% in the first three months of the year, compared to the prior year, making it the third consecutive quarter to show a drop — and the longest sustained dip in a decade.

The downward trend began last year and accelerated over the winter. The decline continued but was milder this spring.

It’s not clear whether China’s emissions will continue to fall this year. Over the past decade, five shorter dips were followed by rebounding emissions.

China’s recent emissions decline was driven by decreased output in cement, steel and power industries, as well as COVID lockdown measures, according to an analysis by Lauri Myllyvirta, a Finland-based climate and energy analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

“Steel and cement are China’s second and third largest emitting sectors, and the demand for both sectors is largely driven by construction activity,” but policy changes on real estate lending and debt have at least temporarily depressed the construction sector, Myllyvirta wrote in an analysis for Carbon Brief.

Whether China meets its long-term goal to become carbon neutral by 2060 depends in large part on what happens in its power sector.

And that depends upon how quickly the world’s second largest economy can move away from coal.

China’s leaders have recently doubled-down on plans to promote coal-fired power, calling for coal production capacity to increase by 300 million tons this year, or 7% over last year.

Li Shuo, a senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace, told the Associated Press in April that economic concerns, including those related to China’s zero-COVID policy, meant that China’s leaders were prioritizing energy security over moving away from fossil fuels, at least in the short-term.

“This mentality of ensuring energy security has become dominant, trumping carbon neutrality,” he said.

China is currently the world’s largest carbon emitter, although other countries, such as the United States, have contributed a greater share of historic emissions.

China’s carbon emissions increased by 750 megatonnes over the two-year period between 2019 and 2021, driving the global rebound in carbon emissions after the first phase of pandemic, according to the nonprofit Paris-based International Energy Agency.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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EU To Boycott 90% of Russian Oil by End of Year

Lebanon, Yemen especially vulnerable to higher energy prices produced by sanctions, experts say

European Union leaders in Brussels agreed on Monday night to ban the seaborne import of Russian oil – about two-thirds of the total − by the end of 2022. And while landlocked Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic will continue to receive Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, Germany and Poland have pledged to voluntarily forgo it, bringing the total cut in imports to about 90%.

This is the sixth round of sanctions imposed by Europe on the Russian Federation since the war in Ukraine began.

Talks on an oil boycott had been taking place since the beginning of May. However, they were stalled because Hungary wanted to continue to buy Russian oil.

The sanctions are expected to cause global oil prices to rise.

In the Middle East, some countries could suffer collateral damage; others will benefit.

Nader Itayim, Dubai-based Mideast Gulf editor at Argus Media, told The Media Line the countries that will most benefit are the region’s oil exporters.

“Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, and even Iran despite the sanctions will all be benefiting from $100+/barrel oil,” he said.

Itayim explained that higher prices translate into higher state revenues, which first will help these countries to alleviate any short-to-medium-term budgetary issues that they may be facing, possibly because of COVID-19, and second finance their plans to diversify their economies away from hydrocarbons.

The region’s oil importers will suffer. He cited Lebanon, Jordan, and even Israel.

For them, he said, “higher oil prices translate into higher import costs for the state, which put pressure on state finances and foreign exchange reserves.”

Robin Mills, CEO of Qamar Energy and author of The Myth of the Oil Crisis, explained to The Media Line that while the increase in oil prices benefits exporters and hurts importers, there are other factors that are important to consider.

While oil-importing countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suffer from higher prices, they may to some extent recover from higher remittances from their citizens working in oil-exporting states and from aid from oil-exporting governments, he said.

On the other hand, he continued, “the non-oil sector in oil-exporter [countries] is also negatively affected by higher prices, especially in countries where oil price rises are passed on to domestic fuel prices, such as the United Arab Emirates.”

The negative effects are reflected in fuel shortages, higher fuel prices, and general inflation, Mills explained. “This can be increased when governments have to cut back on fuel subsidies,” he noted.

So far, he continued, “we have not seen much of that in the region, but it happened in previous situations of rising food and fuel prices.”

For now, it has mostly affected Lebanon, but Egyptians and Iranians could also suffer if they have to reduce subsidies, Mills said.

Mohammed al-Qadhi, a Yemeni political adviser at the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, told The Media Line that Yemen is one of the countries most hurt by rising oil prices.

His country is already harshly affected by the Ukraine war due to the lack of wheat exports.

Concerning the high oil prices, Qadhi added, Yemen will be badly hurt because it imports crude oil for the local market and for power stations.

Yemen is normally an oil producer, he explained. However, because of the civil war that began in 2014, it halted production.

Now with the truce, Qadhi continued, “only a few companies resumed their production of oil, but it is not that much and … it will be shipped to sell it outside of Yemen.”

Yemenis are suffering a great deal because of the price of fuel, which is already very high, he said.

This, he explained, has resulted in a black market all over the country, especially in the areas under the control of the Houthis. “This black market is generating millions according to international organizations,” Qadhi said.

Already now, before the latest jump in oil prices is felt, people and vehicles wait in long lines to get gasoline, he said. This is happening both in the Houthi-controlled areas and in Aden, the headquarters of the internationally recognized interim government.

“Yemen is already facing a lot of problems, and if oil prices rise more, it is going to face more problems,” Qadhi said.

Mills said governments could implement policies to reduce people’s suffering from increases in the cost of energy.

“They can phase in subsidy reductions, offer other support to lower-income citizens, and improve non-oil options,” he said.

Qadhi, however, is not optimistic about the Yemeni government’s ability to act.

He described the Yemeni government as “toothless” when it comes to alleviating the effects of higher oil prices.

“It is not capable of doing anything,” he said. “They are depending on the Saudis for fuel in the gas stations, and we don’t know how much longer they are going to aid Yemen,” Qadhi said.

Itayim said the answer is for governments to plan and think ahead.

“In a word: planning,” he said. In the past, he explained, “particularly in some GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, you would see clear shifts in policy between times of boom [high oil prices] and bust [lower prices].”

In boom times, Itayim added, “you’d see governments regularly implement public sector wage hikes and give generous handouts to the people, instead of diversifying and reinvesting in the economy, while in times of bust, public spending would really be scaled back.

“I think those days are behind us now,” he noted.

Itayim believes that governments in energy exporter countries will continue to focus on strengthening their economies and balance sheets, to make sure they are better prepared for any future price falls.

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BERLIN (AP) — Deutsche Bank subsidiary DWS said Wednesday that its chief executive is resigning, hours after authorities raided its offices as part of a probe into claims that the company exaggerated the sustainable credentials of some of the financial products.

CEO Asoka Woehrmann is set to step down after the company’s annual general meeting on June 9, DWS said. He will be succeeded by Stefan Hoops, who currently oversees Deutsche Bank’s corporate and commercial client activities.

In a statement, Woehrmann said DWS was profitable and stable despite difficult market conditions.

“At the same time, the allegations made against DWS and myself in past months have become a burden for the company, as well as for my family and me,” he was quoted as saying. “In order to protect the institution and those closest to me, I would like to clear the way for a fresh start.”

Some 50 investigators searched the offices of DWS and Deutsche Bank on Tuesday, Frankfurt prosecutors said.

The raids were triggered by a former manager in charge of sustainability, who claimed that DWS had engaged in “greenwashing” by exaggerating the environmental and climate credentials of certain funds it sold.

Prosecutors said initial investigations showed there were sufficient indications that environmental, social, and governance criteria were not considered in a majority of the funds featured in the company’s sales brochures.

Deutsche Bank said Tuesday that the actions taken by prosecutors were “directed against unknown people in connection with greenwashing allegations against DWS.”

“DWS said that they have continuously cooperated fully with all relevant regulators and authorities on this matter and will continue to do so,” the bank said Tuesday.

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