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Iranian crude exports rise above 1 million bpd - trackers
Nuclear talks resumed this week
Rueters
China takes the bulk of Iran's exported crude
LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Iranian oil exports have risen to more than 1 million barrels per day for the first time in almost three years, based on estimates from companies that track the flows, reflecting increased shipments to China.
Western sanctions have sent the ruble into a nosedive, with the currency tumbling 30% overnight to an all-time low versus the dollar. In response, Russia's central bank more than doubled its key interest rate to 20%, freed local bank reserves to boost liquidity and ordered exporters to sell 80% of their hard currency revenues. In a bid to shield the nation's assets, brokers were also banned from handling sales of securities by non-residents, while Russian oligarchs were put on watch by many Western nations.
All the uncertainty has led to renewed risk-off sentiment, with U.S. stock index futures falling as much as 3% after major comeback sessions last week. Concerns over energy disruptions sent crude oil futures in the opposite direction, with the contracts climbing 4% to $95/bbl. Risk aversion was also seen elsewhere, as gold futures rose 1.2% to about $1,910 a troy ounce, the dollar index advanced 0.8% to 97.368 and the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 7 bps to 1.91%.
"A bank run has already started in Russia over the weekend... and inflation will immediately spike massively, and the Russian banking system is likely to be in trouble," declared Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA. "These sanctions from the West are likely to eventually hurt trade flows out of Russia [around 80% of FX transactions handled by Russian financial institutions are denominated in USD], which will also hurt the growth outlook of Russia's key trading partners including Europe and lead to greater inflationary pressures and risk of stagflation, we think," added analysts at Nomura.
