Happy Friday, Munchers!

Before we kick the partying off, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 5 minutes and 10 seconds.

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary 🎙️

• US stocks recorded another run up to notch a 3-month high as producer prices fall to the lowest level since early in the pandemic. 🐂

• Indian stocks also notched a 4-month high, mainly over some soothing economic data that has the RBI a little less hawkish. 🦅

• Oil rose slightly as demand fears eased over an IEA meeting. That's the International Energy Agency. 🛢️

Story Roundup

1 - BlackRock to offer private BTC trust to institutions. 🔥

The world's larges asset manager is finally making a big push into crypto.

BlackRock said that they'll be making a private Bitcoin trust that's only trade-able by institutional clients.

The steep downturn in cryptoassets of the last few months doesn't faze them - BlackRock says that they are still seeing a lot of demand for crypto from institutional clients.

If the fund actually gets launched, it'll show how far Bitcoin has gone from an asset class - from something used for drugs and hitmen to something that a pension fund could invest in.

Probably nothing. 💯

https://twitter.com/Jamilist

2 - IEA says that sanctions done nun' to Russia. 🤺

The International Energy Agency knows what's up. It looks like the sanctions that the West has slapped Russia with have done barely anything to ease output,

The reason?

All the oil that was meant for Europe, America and Japan went to India, China and Turkey instead.

Asian buyers stepped in for some cheap crude oil - China overtook the EU as the biggest importer of Russian oil closely followed by India.

The total damage to Russia's oil output? A measly 2.7%.

3 - Stocks enjoy a 3-month high over easing inflation. 📉

Growth and tech stocks alike enjoyed a bumper month - surging to a 3-month high after some soothing economic data.

Inflation came in at 8.5% for July and unemployment claims rose for the second straight week - giving markets confidence that the labour market is softening.

We can also see that the rate hikes that the Fed has rolled out are doing their job in destroying demand.

There's still a long way to go - but I'm sure we'll make it. 👌

4 - US producer prices ease for the first time since pandemic. 💉

In annual terms, US producer prices dropped for the first time since April 2020.

US PPI came in at 9.8% compared to 11.3% the prior month, a sign that businesses will have a lower cost of production and in turn will ease inflation.

Energy prices had a big hand in this - dropping 9% in July, down from a sharp 9.4% increase the month before.

Economists don't expect too many more drops until later this year - since inflation is meant to be a little stubborn this time.

Looks like things will ease at the checkout soon.🤔

5 - Argentina hikes rates to... 69.5%💀

The central bank of Argentina hiked their benchmark interest rate from 60% to 69.5% in an attempt to quell annual inflation of 71%.

This follows a hike of 8% in the base rate just 2 weeks back - with prices accelerating 7.4% month-on-month.

Central bankers say that this increase in consumer prices has been driven by household equipment and recreation and culture. 🤨

Unseen times.

Weekend's in. Go out for a drink or two with the lads. 🥳

Non-alcoholic, becausea) we keep it halal here. 💯b) a certain someone is under 21.

Hope you enjoyed this issue of the Market Munch. If you have any feedback, positive or negative, hit my line at [email protected] or +971 50 708 8469.

Cheers and have a good one.

- A