Banking stocks drove European markets lower on Monday as global investors weighed the consequences of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The US lender imploded last week and had its assets seized after a bank run caused its stock to plummet.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index dropped 2.56% at 13:00 GMT, with all major stocks trading in the red. Bank stocks slumped more than 6%, with Commerzbank, BAWAG Group, and Banco BPM among the biggest losers. Credit Suisse plunged 15% in early trading and UniCredit lost 9%, while Deutsche Bank and Raiffeisen Bank both declined by 7%.
The meltdown came despite the news that Britain’s HSBC, which is one of the world’s biggest banks and boasts $2.9 trillion in assets, has agreed to rescue the UK branch of SVB for a symbolic £1, vowing to protect client deposits as part of the deal. Following the announcement, HSBC saw its shares drop 3.5%.
“We’re seeing a liquidity withdrawal – the classic thing that you’d expect following a credit event like what’s happening at SVB. People get scared, reduce exposure to equities and move into government bonds,” Haig Bathgate, head of investments at Atomos, told Bloomberg.
https://www.rt.com/business/572907-us-banking-crisis-european-stocks/
A fresh wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes has crippled a major US air base in Bahrain, with strikes destroying command centers as Iranian forces continue launching firm response to the US-Israeli aggression.
"Ten key and strategic command points and equipment complexes of the American terrorist forces at the 'Sheikh Isa Air Base' in Bahrain were heavily hit by Iranian projectiles," The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on the 15th wave of operation "True Promise 4".
The targets destroyed included the air control command center of the American terrorist forces, aircraft fuel depots, and the building housing high-ranking American commanders, according to the statement.
Earlier in the day the IRGC announced that its naval forces launched a large-scale drone and missile operation on the US air base in the Sheikh Isa area of Bahrain early this morning .......more below
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The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced execution of the 16th wave of its underway Operation True Promise 4 against renewed Israeli-American aggression towards the Islamic Republic.
In a statement issued in late Tuesday, the Corps noted that it had struck the "heart and the northern parts of the occupied territories" with "effective" missile and drone operations conducted by its Aerospace Division.
It cited some of the targets as the general staff of the Israeli regime's army and its ministry of war in Hakiriya, the strategic infrastructures lying in Bnei Brak, military targets stationed in Beit Hakfa, northeast of Tel Aviv, and the military center in Western Galilee.
According to intelligence sources and field monitoring, enemy military casualties have increased to more than 680 killed and wounded by the fourth day of the reprisal, the Corps stated.
The statement pointed to "operational weakness, technical gaps, and the reduced computational capability in the multi-layer defense ...
The Iranian army has reported that its air defense systems successfully destroyed six advanced enemy drones over the last 24 hours as they were flying over the Iranian territory.
In a communique issued on Tuesday, the army stated that the drones were intercepted and shot down by the integrated systems of the Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base.
It further specified that six advanced “Hermes” drones were targeted and destroyed across various regions, including Isfahan, Qasr-e Shirin, Tabriz, Khuzestan province, and the greater Tehran area.
Since the beginning of the war on Saturday, a total of 35 advanced hostile drones have been intercepted and downed, the army reported.
These operations were executed by ground-based air defense units, fighter jets from the Air Force, and units of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), all operating under the country’s integrated air defense network.
Iran’s military has been conducting sustained retaliatory attacks against the American ...
