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On January 31, NASA announced that the Perseverance rover had successfully completed its first maneuver on the Martian surface using an AI-planned route. According to NASAs website, the demonstration mission, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, took place on December 8 and 10, 2025. The mission team used generative artificial intelligence with visual understanding capabilities to analyze high-resolution images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and data on terrain and slope, identifying key terrain features such as rocks, sand ripples, and boulder deposits. This generated a continuous route with multiple path nodes, helping Perseverance safely traverse complex terrain. Previously, this work was primarily done by ground engineers. Perseverance stored the AI-generated path nodes in its memory and traveled approximately 210 meters on December 8 and another 246 meters two days later.According to Interfax news agency, production at Kazakhstans Tengiz oil field has resumed.On January 31st, the Institute of Finance and Banking of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released its "China Macroeconomic and Financial Analysis" report for the fourth quarter of 2025, which pointed out that in 2026, my countrys economic policy orientation will shift from "strengthening unconventional counter-cyclical adjustments" to "increasing the intensity of counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments." The macroeconomic and financial analysis team of the Institute of Finance and Banking of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences believes that in 2026, it is necessary to adhere to both policy support and reform and innovation, and to coordinate short-term macroeconomic control with medium- and long-term reform and governance. To this end, they propose three suggestions: First, fiscal and financial efforts should be coordinated to effectively unleash the potential of domestic demand; second, high-quality urban renewal should be used as a lever to stabilize investment; and third, innovative approaches to macroeconomic governance should be adopted to accelerate the repair of the balance sheets of micro-entities.On January 31, SpaceX filed an application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch up to one million satellites to build an orbital data center network around the Earth. In a filing submitted Friday night, the company described the project as a satellite constellation with "unprecedented computing power" designed to support advanced AI models and their applications. In an eight-page document, SpaceX outlined its vision for an "orbital data center system," stating that to provide the capabilities needed for large-scale AI inference and data processing to billions of users worldwide, the company aims to deploy up to one million satellites operating in multiple narrow orbital layers no more than 50 kilometers thick.January 31st - Analysts suggest that Fridays gold price plunge may have been accelerated by a so-called "gamma squeeze." This occurs when prices break through a significant number of option open interest levels. Traders holding short option positions need to buy more futures (or gold ETF shares) to balance their portfolios, and then sell when prices fall back below these levels. For the SPDR Gold ETF, a large number of options with strike prices at $465 and $455 expired on Friday, while CME Groups March and April options also had significant open interest concentrated at $5300, $5200, and $5100.

European gas prices increase as a result of Russia's shutdown of the Nord Stream pipeline

Charlie Brooks

Sep 06, 2022 11:24

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European natural gas futures soared at the start of trade on Monday after the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) shut down the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany, stoking fears of a complete halt in Russian supply over the winter.


The front-month Dutch TTF contract, which serves as a benchmark for northwest Europe, reached a high of 31% before retreating slightly to trade at 263 euros per megawatt-hour as of 03:25 ET (07:25 GMT). This marks an increase of 22.5% from Friday's closing price.


Gazprom's action was the second major escalation in the economic confrontation sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Friday. The corporation announced its news immediately following the close of natural gas trade in Europe, and only hours after G-7 finance ministers agreed on a long-awaited plan to place a price ceiling on Russian oil exports in an effort to cut off the flow of funding to President Vladimir Putin's government.


Prior to the suspension, Nord Stream was transporting roughly 30 million cubic meters of gas per day, or nearly 20% of its official capacity. This loss makes it more difficult for European utilities to continue filling their storage tanks before the winter heating season.


Despite the fact that storage levels in the Euro area have increased significantly in recent weeks as a result of rising imports of liquefied natural gas, the focus this week will be on the possibility of rationing and additional measures to control demand for gas and electricity costs, according to Saxo Bank strategists. "Demand destruction due to high pricing has already reduced demand, but more must be done, particularly if the upcoming winter is cold.


Germany placed a windfall tax on electricity generators to fund a 65 billion euro rescue plan for consumers suffering unmanageable increases in their bills, while Finland and Sweden launched emergency packages to avert the collapse of energy enterprises as the price of supplies surged.


Given that a substantial amount of Europe's marginal capacity - where output can be easily modified to match natural changes in demand - is gas-powered, gas prices have played a big influence in the increase in electricity prices. On Friday, EU energy ministers will meet to discuss plans to decouple electricity and gas prices, among other topics.


Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berlin's Berenberg Bank, stated in a client note that the closing of Nord Stream suggests that the euro zone, "and Germany in particular," will see higher inflation and a more severe recession than the European Central Bank and private economists forecast.


At the opening bell on Monday, all European assets reflected this pessimism, with the euro plunging to a new 20-year low of $0.9877 before recovering to $0.9911, a 0.4% decrease. Due to its large weighting of energy-sensitive businesses, the STOXX 600 sank 1.6% while the German DAX fell 3.0%.

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