Happy morning, Munchers! 🙏

Weekend's officially in full swing.

Work's out, party's in. Time to blow off some steam - hope your Friday evening was relaxing. 

As always, here is your daily dose of the news that matters, from Wall Street to Dalal Street - in 4 minutes and 57 seconds.

Let’s dive in.

What’s hot, what’s not?

Market Commentary

• Both US and Indian stocks alike took sharp downturns after comments from a US Fed official - he basically said more aggressive hikes may be needed. 💀

• Bitcoin also slid almost 10% on the same news. Crypto bros are on tilt. 📉

• Looks like Fed's acknowledging that inflation still has a long way to come down - and market is reacting accordingly. 🥵

Story Roundup

1 - Reserve Bank of India hell-bent on tackling cost-of-living surge.⚔️

The Reserve Bank of India's position on inflation is clear. 

 Governor Shaktikanta Das said that inflation is "unacceptably and uncomfortably high".

Retail inflation currently lies at 6.71%.

This number has decreased for the 3rd straight month - a sign of some easing in a very tricky macro environment. 

Regardless, it still stays high above the the 2-4% target set by the RBI - so it's safe to say that we can see some more hiking.

Prudent. 🧠

2 - Buffett gets the go-ahead to splash some cash on oil. 🛢️

Berkshire Hathaway won regulator permission to buy a 50% stake in Occidental Petroleum. 

It's given Mr. Buffett the option to increase his stake in one of the US's biggest oil producers. 

The stock responded very well to this news - with the stock jumping almost 10%, bringing it to a market cap of US$66.41b.

Oil prices have surged - as have Occidental's profits. 

The Oracle of Omaha has something up his sleeve. 📈

3 - Dirty energy makes a comeback in Europe. 💩

Traders warned that coal is getting "re-embedded" into energy generation.

Winter's coming up for Europe - so homes will need to be heated. This requires energy. A lot of it. 

However, since Russia cut gas supplies, Europe has been grappling with an energy crisis unseen in generations. 

It is now more profitable to burn coal than use natural gas - even after you add in all the carbon emission fines. 

Climate's crying rn. 💀

4 - US mortgage lenders are going up in smoke. 🔥

The mortgage industry in America is seeing some lenders go off the market.

This is coming after a spike in lending rates - and a lot of market failures that echo the throes of the 2008 financial crisis.

It isn't the big lenders that are being hurt - it's the smaller guys.

As mortgage volumes plummet, these noncapitalized companies have a harder time staying alive.

Unprecedented times.

5 - Four week recovery streak in stocks gets snapped by inflation. 🫰

Wall Street and the rest of the world trended lower on Friday - ending a 4 week winning streak.

Most of this came after some pessimistic comments from a US Fed official. 

Economists will also keep their eyes peeled on a pretty important Fed meeting next week.

It's called the Jackson Hole symposium for central bankers - and it could yield some clues as to how they'll go about tackling inflation.

Finger on the trigger. 🔫

Have a stellar weekend guys. See you on Monday.

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. 

- A