International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol is meeting with other global energy officials in Sydney for a two-day forum on Tuesday.

No further details at this stage. Stay tuned.

• Solid US economy can handle rising rates
• last week’s job reports points to a solid US economy with little sign of a recession on the horizon.
• Financial markets are flashing signs that an economic downturn could arrive sometime next year
• now we have lots of inflation, but the question is can we get inflation back to 2% without disrupting the economy
• does not seem the US has contracted over the first two months of the year
• Still supports a 75 basis point hike at the July meeting
• higher rates limit the ability of consumers and businesses to borrow and spend which can cool growth and inflation, but they also carry the risk of tipping the economy into a downturn
• other measures of the economy, such as broad measures of workers and business incomes, suggests the economy likely expanded in the 1st 6 months of this year
• businesses added 2.7 million jobs during that time, a robust total that reflects an optimistic outlook among businesses

Monday 11 July 2022 is the scheduled date for Russia to take the Nordstream 1 gas pipeline offline.

Ten days of maintenance work is planned. Tensions are high that the switch will not turned back on again and gas to Europe from Russia will not be brought back online.

Yahoo news have posted this, citing

• Putin will react to attempts to seize Kherson as an existential threat to Russia – as he considers that to be part of Russia already – and would be ready to use nuclear weapons,” Piontkovsky said, quoting Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief, host and co-owner of recently banned Russian radio station Echo of Moscow.

Here is the link if you want to check it out. I’d hate to think this piece is in any way accurate, but am ill-equipped to make such a judgement. And Putin hasn’t exactly come across as stable. So, I’m gonna have to pass it across for ForexLive traders to decide.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met.

• Both diplomats described their first in-person talks since October as “candid”
• After the meeting, a US official said “neither side held back”.
• “We were very open about where our differences are … but the meeting was also constructive because despite the candor, the tone was very professional,” the official said.

Blinken said he raised concerns over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow.

• “I shared again with the state councilor that we are concerned about the PRC’s alignment with Russia,” Blinken told a news conference after the talks, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
• He said he did not think China was behaving in a neutral way as it had supported Russia in the United Nations and “amplified Russian propaganda”.

Info via CNN, posting for info. Its not like China Communist Party’s support for the Russian invasion is a secret.

Concerns are mounting over the risk of a full scale bank run in China.

• six banks across the Henan and Anhui provinces have effectively frozen deposits

Protestors outside People’s Bank of China branches across the region have been taken away by security forces

Washington Post:

• The protesters are among thousands of customers who opened accounts at six rural banks in Henan and neighboring Anhui province that offered higher interest rates. They later found they could not withdraw their funds after media reports that the head of the banks’ parent company was on the run and wanted for financial crimes.