Published on: 2026-03-26
Putin congratulated Iranian leaders on Nowruz and said Moscow remained a loyal friend and reliable partner to Tehran, the Kremlin said on Saturday. The military axis comes is deepening given their plight.
According to a BBC report, Ukraine has embarked on a massive programme to deploy armed robots on the ground. Those uncrewed ground vehicles even make no sound unlike aerial drones.
Furthermore, AI-powered soldier robots, intended for tasks such as reconnaissance, bomb disposal, and other high-risk ground operations, are delivered to Ukraine, which may eventually tip the scale of the war against Russia.
The European country is facing an increasingly acute military manpower challenge more than four years after Russia invasion. Its forces are heavily outnumbered, so reducing casualties is the key to a favourable peace deal.
Russia's largest crude export terminal and an oil refinery were attacked earlier this week as Kyiv is consistently targeting energy infrastructure. The strategy has panned out, triggering stagflation.
Russia's GDP declined 2.1% in January, while inflation stood at below 6% on an annual basis. That will also prompt Putin to support Iran as higher energy prices can keep the war machine running.
The US has issued a new general license this month to replace an earlier waiver for the sale of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products loaded on tankers as of 12 March.
Iran denied on Monday that it had engaged in negotiations with Trump, after the president postponed the attack on power grid because of what he described as productive talks with unidentified Iranian officials.
A European official said that Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states were relaying messages instead of direct negotiation. Other sources said that direct talks on ending the war could be held in Islamabad as soon as this week.
The deaths of Iran's top leaders are seen to precipitate fragmented leadership. Trump confirmed his interlocutor was not the nominal leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whose looks weak as a religious stature.
The efforts to topple the theocratic government has made little progress so far. The remaining officials turn out to be more radical and dangerous, which means the new ruler can hardly please Israel and the US.
Trump said that a peace deal with Iran will entail taking the country's enriched uranium. Denuclearization is non-negotiable, though Washington may give Teheran leeway to retain ideology.
But as stated earlier, Russia could feel more pains if the ongoing conflict in the Middle East comes to a halt in a short span of time. Potential easing sanction on Iranian exports carries huge downside risks for oil markets.
With Iran in disarray and Russia at stake, the odds are against Trump talking his way into ceasefire. Fossil fuel as a pivotal bargaining chip is expected to keep traders on the edge in Q2 and beyond.
Government bond yields in the US and Europe spiked on Friday. Investors are rapidly recalibrating the scope of global central banks to ease monetary policy the longer the war goes on.
The 10-year gilt yields surged to their highest since 2008, while the comparable bund yields hit their highest since the euro zone crisis in 2011. Benchmark Treasury yields also rose to their highest since last summer.
Major economies are all sounding a similarly cautious note on a resurgent price shock. Government bonds have been overshadowed by gold as a safe-haven due to higher rates after the pandemic.
High-yield retail funds were hit with the largest weekly redemptions since October, including outflows of $1.37 billion from fast-money ETFs and $279 million from mutual funds, according to Morningstar earlier this month.
Despite historic outflows post the "Liberation Day" tariffs last April, overall inflows were $18.2 billion for all 2025, in line with rising stocks. Junk bonds are generally positively correlated with equities.
Junk bonds have yielded higher returns than government bonds since late 2022 amid improved sentiment. iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund set its all-time peak in February.
If the closure of the Strait of Hormuz rumbles on, global growth will face the risk of notable slowdown and hence rapid-growing default rates – a particular heavy blow to high-yield bond funds.
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