Morning Brief: Top Stories Dominating Financial Media On Thursday, March 10th

CNBC

• Cyber Hackers Target Vodafone After Breaching Nvidia, Samsung
  • Vodafone Group PLC VOD is investigating Lapsus$' claims of a data breach.
  • The group noted for breaching Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's SSNLF source codes of Galaxy-branded devices, threatened to leak Vodafone's source code.

• $17B Worth NFTs Traded In 2021, More Players Could Join After Visa, Nike
  • The trading in NFTs hit $17.6 billion in 2021, up 21,000% year-on-year, NFT data company Nonfungible.com reports.
  • Collectibles, which accounted for $8.4 billion worth of sales, proved the most popular NFT category. Gaming NFTs like Axie Infinity racked up $5.2 billion in sales came next.

• Years Of Falling Prices For Solar Products Reversed In 2021
  • According to a report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, 2021 was the first year solar prices rose across residential, commercial, and utility-scale since 2014 when Wood Mackenzie began tracking the data.
  • According to the report, in some portions of the solar industry, prices increased to almost 18%
  • "The supply chain constraints of the last year will hit 2022 installations the hardest, reducing capacity by 7% compared to 2021," said Michelle Davis, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report.

Reuters

• More Non-US Companies Restricted Services In Russia After US Counterparts
  • Rio Tinto PLC RIO became the first leading miner to suspend trading relations with Russian businesses, Reuters reports.
  • Japan's Sony Group SONY and Nintendo Co Ltd NTDOF also halted deliveries of their gaming consoles.
  • Credit Suisse Group AG CS flagged a ~$900 million Russian credit exposure.

• EPA Restores California's Authority In Emission Standards
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has restored California's authority to implement its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards and zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales mandate.
  • The move is a reversal of the 2019 decision by former President Donald Trump.

• US Federal Aviation Administration Finalizes Boeing 777 Safety Directives After Fan Blade Failures
  • The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finalized three safety directives for some grounded Boeing Co BA 777 planes with Raytheon Technologies Corp's RTX Pratt & Whitney 4000 engines that will allow the planes to return to service.
  • The directives will be effective in mid-April.

• Delta, Air France-KLM Express Interest In ITA Airways
  • Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL and Air France-KLM AFRAF have expressed interest in a majority stake in ITA Airways, Reuters reported.
  • The expression of interest was presented to Italy's government in a letter, with another international fund also expressing the same.

WSJ

• Democrats Remove $15.6B COVID-19 Provision To Pass $13.6B Aid for Ukraine
  • The House passed a $1.5 trillion spending bill, including emergency aid for Ukraine, after Democratic leaders decided to remove the $15.6 billion in COVID-19 assistance, as some Democratic lawmakers said they felt blindsided by the provision.
  • The $15.6 billion COVID-19 aid was intended to prepare for future variants or spike in cases.

• Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich, Owner of Soccer Club Chelsea, Is Sanctioned by UK
  • Thursday, the British government became the first Western country to impose sanctions against Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich as it seeks to ratchet up pressure on Kremlin-linked businesspeople.
  • The U.K. government said Thursday the Russian tycoon's assets would now be frozen and a travel ban imposed.

Bloomberg

• $223M In Crypto Liquidated As Bitcoin Falls To $39,000
  • More than $223 million worth of cryptocurrency liquidations occurred on Thursday after Bitcoin BTC/USD lost support at $40,000.
  • According to data from CoinGlass, more than 62,000 traders were liquidated as Bitcoin dropped 7.5% to a low of $39,145.
• Goldman Sachs Could Offer Hedge Funds And Bitcoin Miners A New Way To Boost Yields
  • Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS reportedly plans on expanding its cryptocurrency product offerings to include over-the-counter (OTC) bilateral crypto options.
  • Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the bank is in the early discussions to include bilateral cryptocurrency options.

Financial times

• Pimco stands to lose billions if Russia defaults on its debt
  • Pimco has billions of dollars riding on the economic fallout from Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, after amassing a wager worth at least $1bn in derivatives markets that the country will not default while also holding $1.5bn of its sovereign debt.
  • The fund disclosed that it had written $942mn of CDS protection on Russia by the end of 2021. The other funds to hold positions include Pimco's Total Return bond fund, its Emerging Markets bond fund, Diversified Income, and Low Duration income funds.