Happy morning, Munchers! 🙏

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 53 seconds.

That's less time than it takes for Putin to dish out oil bans, China to go for a cheeky trip round Taiwan, and insurance execs to think twice about protecting against hacks. 🔥 

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• All hopes for a Santa Claus rally are gone. Markets haven't beefed up for the home stretch of 2022 and it's definitely looking bleak. I swear we're on the nice list. Most of us, at least. 🤷🏼

• Oil markets are on tilt as Russia goes ham with their plan to stop oil exports to anyone that follows Western price caps.

• Bets against the market have hit a record high of late - pretty telling about general sentiment at the moment.

Story Roundup

1 - Putin slaps oil bans on anyone who's tight with the G7. 🤜🏼

Ukraine's buddies upset Papa Putin, and he's out for blood.

He just signed a bill to ban all oil exports to Western countries that trade with a price cap on crude.

This $60/barrel price cap was the brainchild of the G7, and it's an attempt to curb Russia's free-flowing oil revenues.

These revenues make up nearly half of their budget. They're also directly responsible for keeping the flame of war alive in Ukraine.

The ban goes into action on Feb 1 of next year.

Slippery situation. 🤔

2 - China goes for a show of force. 💥

While the world was sipping on hot chocolate and opening presents, China was up to something else.

They just conducted their largest military exercises over Taiwan.

Yeah, largest ones ever.

They sent 47 planes into Taiwanese airspace and unsettled quite a few folks.

No one knows why this happened, but the US Congress just passed a bill that fast-tracks arms sales to Taiwan and gives them $10bn of assistance.

And of course, China isn't happy with this. In fact, they're pretty pissed. They said that this act damages peace and stability in the Taiwan strait.

Oh man. It's like high school bullying, all over again. 🤦🏼

3 - Insurance execs say that cyber-attacks are uninsurable. 😳

The nerds chilling in their mom's basement are leaving big insurance companies with nowhere to go.

One of Europe's biggest insurers has warned that cyber attacks will be un-insurable in the coming years.

Recent attacks have disrupted hospitals, shut down pipelines, and made life hell for governments.

This all puts a dent into insurers' bank accounts, who have to hold the bag in turn.

Systemic risk is the killer of all diversification. 🤔

4 - America gets frozen out. Literally. 🥶

Mother Nature is turning the AC on, and airports around America are bearing the brunt.

A blizzard is sweeping over the US, and it's pretty deadly.

Over 2 dozen people are on the death tally so far.

Logistics have been shuffled up since there's a lot chaos, so getting urgent care is difficult too.

These logistics problems are serious too - over 3k US flights were canceled with a further 3k being "delayed".

That's pilot-speak for "you're never getting on that plane".

Cold. ❄️

5 - The hands of the law come for rich Russians. 🫳🏼

Russia's richest tycoon is now in Western crosshairs.

Vladimir Potanin is a nickel billionaire, and he has hands in almost every cookie jar imaginable.

A lot of his family's personal property is being sanctioned along with companies that he owns stakes in. That means banks, commodity shops, and tons of startups.

He's apparently gonna lose his ski chalet in the Swiss Alps too.

But don't feel bad for him. He can always use his other ski chalet. And if that one gets taken away, he has a third to fall back on. 😂

Hope you enjoyed this issue of the Market Munch. If you've got any feedback - good or bad (😏) you can hit reply to this email. Thanks a ton for reading!

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Cheers, and have a lovely day. 🙏

Aryaansh