US economic data revealed last night shows that the country’s GDP has shrunk by 0.9%, although some are remaining positive that a recession may still be avoided. Despite the worrying figures, Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, outlined his belief that due to low unemployment figures of 3.6% and a strong market for jobs with 11 million job openings that there may be a 'soft landing'. Joe Biden commented, “It’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation.” More US CPI data is expected to be announced tonight.

In response to the GDP figure, the US indices had another green day with the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq, and the S&P500 all rising 1.03%, 1.08%, and 1.21% respectively. In terms of share price movement, Meta’s stock price dipped 5.22% as it posted its first-ever quarterly drop in revenue, signaling how interest rate hikes have been impacting growth companies. The data also followed through to the Australian market with the yield on 3-year government bonds falling to 3.1%.

The ASX200 also continued its momentum for the week as it pushed higher again on Thursday. Brent Crude Oil had a mixed day ending the day flat at $107.58. Gold continued to bounce off its support zone and climbed up 1.25% and Natural Gas fell 4.66% as it continues to pull back from its recent highs dropping 4.66%.

FOREX and Cryptocurrency The USD dropped sharply as the GDP figures were announced. It recovered briefly, before selling back down, closing towards the lowest price of the day, a total drop of 0.28%. Bitcoin and Ethereum also gained momentum as money continued to flow back into risk assets, with the latter jumping to its highest level since the middle of July.

ETHUSD closed at $1726 and Bitcoin at $23,860.

Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) reported its fourth-quarter earnings results after the closing bell over Wall Street today – surpassing analyst expectations. World’s leading customer relationship management (CRM) company reported revenue of $7.326 billion (an increase of 26% year-over-year) vs. $7.242 billion expected. Earnings per share reported at $0.84 a share vs. $0.75 a share expected. ''We had another phenomenal quarter and full-year of financial results,'' Marc Benioff, Chair and Co-CEO of Salesforce said following the latest results. ''As we continue to see tremendous demand from customers, we’re raising our FY23 re venue guidance to $32.1 billion at the high-end of range, with non-GAAP operating margin of 20%, and operating cash flow growth of 22% year-over-year,'' Benioff continued.

Bret Taylor, Co-CEO of Salesforce, also commented on the strong financial results: ''With our customers’ success driving our financial success, we’re generating disciplined, profitable growth at scale quarter after quarter.'' ''Our Customer 360 platform has never been more strategic or relevant in driving the growth and resilience of our customers around the world.'' Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) Share price of Salesforce was little changed at the end of the trading day on Wall Street Tuesday, down by 0.78% at $208.36 per share. Here is how the stock has performed in the past year – 1 Month: -10.01% 3 Month: -26.69% Year-to-date: -17.80% 1 Year: -2.15% Salesforce.com Inc. is the 51 st largest company in the world with total market cap of $205.75 billion. You can trade Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and the ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD.

Sources: Salesforce.com Inc., TradingView, MetaTrader 5, CompaniesMarketCap

Salesforce the worlds #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform has just announced record fourth quarter and full fiscal 2022 results exceeding expectations. The pandemic-led shift to hybrid work has kept up a strong demand for its cloud-based software. Total fourth quarter revenue was $7.33 billion, an increase of 26% year over year, and 27% in constant currency.

Salesforce’s subscription and support revenue for the fourth quarter also rose 24.7% to $6.83 Billion. “We had another phenomenal quarter and full-year of financial results,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and Co-CEO of Salesforce. With our customers’ success driving our financial success, we’re generating disciplined, profitable growth at scale quarter after quarter,” said Bret Taylor, Co-CEO of Salesforce. “Our Customer 360 platform has never been more strategic or relevant in driving the growth and resilience of our customers around the world.” Salesforce has also been working to integrate Slack after its $27.7 billion purchase of the instant messaging platform, as well as adding products in a bid to sell more tools to existing customers. Analysts see a lot of room to increase sales of the company’s flagship software that lets businesses manage and interact with customers.

Salesforce believes the software market can grow double digits over the next several years, as companies across the globe continue to have conversations about facilitating hybrid and remote work models. Salesforce has not slowed down Slack’s roadmap, with the platform launching Slack Huddles and Clips in the second half of 2021. Salesforce said it expects $1.5 billion in sales form Slack in its fiscal year 2023.

Salesforce’s stock price has been on a downhill ride in the past several months, falling more than 30% from it’s November record high of over $310. Shares have recently increased over 4% and are currently trading at $209.65. Salesforce (CRM) Salesforce.com Inc. is the 51 st largest company in the world with total market cap of $205.75 billion Gavin Patterson the Chief Revenue Office said the global sanctions against Russia arising out of the war with Ukraine will have “minimal impact” on Salesforce’s business and haven’t forced the company to take any actions.

You can trade Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) and many other stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX and the ASX with GO Markets as a Share CFD. Sources: Reuters, Yahoo Finance, itnews

In the midst of the Russian, Ukraine crisis, there are huge ramifications that affect us all in the global market. Energy is a critically important export. Russian oil and gas exports make up a fifth of Russia's economy and half of its earnings from exports.

The country is the European Union's biggest oil trading partner, according to the latest data from Eurostat. Russia also ranks 5 th in the world for oil consumption, accounting for about 3.7% of the world's total consumption of 97,103,871 barrels per day. They are also ranked 3 rd in oil production, which is the most important factor when it comes to costs, sitting close to the oil powerhouses of United States and Saudi Arabia.

They are also some way ahead of China, who sits in 4 th lagging behind Russia by a wide margin of 6 million barrels per day (Fig.1). As you can imagine any disruption to any country in this list on a normal day, would trigger a price movement. So a war and subsequent sanctions on a country who controls so much consumption and production of the precious liquid would make more than a ripple.

Global benchmark April Brent crude climbed $3.06, or 3.1%, to end at $100.99 a barrel. The contract, which expired at the end of the session, settled at its highest since September 2014, posting a gain of 10.7% for the month. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $4.13, or 4.5%, to settle at $95.72 a barrel.

The front-month contract finished at the highest since August 2014, up 8.6% for the month, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Latest Price Action Over the last few days, we have seen Oil prices finished higher each closing day, a sharp increase over night of 9.72% to start today’s session at $106.33 (Fig.2). Fig. 2 WTI Oil followed suit and had a jump of 11.5%, a sharp increase over night to start today’s session at $106.75 (Fig.3).

Fig. 3 The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. and other major oil-consuming countries were weighing the release of 70 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles in response to surging crude prices. This is to try to stabilize the oil prices and make up the supply that Russia would normally deliver pre sanctions. It’s important to tread carefully when trading assets such as these commodities, which are driven by Geopolitics, unforeseen supply and demand levels and corporate institutions around the world who have their own agendas in mind when thinking of their bottom line.

Profits. Sources: QUARTZ, worldometers.info, The Wall Street Journal, Tradingview.

Last week, Russia took a step that not many people thought it would take – they invaded Ukraine. Even though the tensions have been building in the region since the annexation of Crimea in February 2014, not many people thought Vladimir Putin would take the step to invade a sovereign nation. Five days on from the start of the invasion, we have already seen countries around the world condemn Russia’s actions and announce tough sanctions against the largest country in the world.

None of those have yet made any difference to their actions, as they continue their invasion. However, their actions have already impacted their economy - and it will most likely get worse. Swift action from the West Over the weekend, the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and other countries agreed to remove a number of Russian banks from The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system, an international payment system which is used by financial institutions around the world. "We commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system.

This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally," the European Commission said in a statement following the announcement. The latest move will have a drastic impact on the Russian economy, which is the 11 th largest in the world according to the World Bank data. It is worth pointing out that only one other country has ever been cut off from the SWIFT system – Iran.

The move resulted in Iran losing half of its oil export revenues and 30% of foreign trade. The central bank reacts On Monday, the Bank of Russia announced its key interest rate from 9.5% to 20% to protect the Ruble, as the pressure mounts on the Russian economy following the latest round of sanctions. ''External conditions for the Russian economy have drastically changed. The increase of the key rate will ensure a rise in deposit rates to levels needed to compensate for the increased depreciation and inflation risks.

This is needed to support financial and price stability and protect the savings of citizens from depreciation,'' the Central Bank said in a statement on their website. ''Further key rate decisions will be made taking into account risks posed by external and domestic conditions and the reaction of financial markets, as well as actual and expected inflation movements relative to the target and economic developments over forecast period,'' the statement continued. The Central Bank of Russian Federation interest changes since July 2020 Financial markets Last week we saw the Moscow stock exchange, the MOEX index, plummet by 45% - to a new record low. The index recovered some of the losses last Friday when it was up by 20%.

On Monday, it was announced that the exchange will not open and the Russian Central Bank said that the operating hours of the exchange would be announced on 1 March 2022 before 9:00 Moscow time. MOEX Russia Index The Ruble The Russian currency has been in free fall since the conflict began – reaching the lowest level ever against the US Dollar. US Dollar was trading at around 76 level at the beginning of February vs. the Russian Ruble.

USD/RUB was trading 107.7000 level on Monday – up by around 27%. USD/RUB With the conflict showing no signs of getting resolved any time soon, we will most likely see more impact on the Russian and world economy in the coming weeks and months. Sources: The World Bank, TradingView, Global Rates, The Central Bank of Russian Federation

All prices in this article will be in USD unless otherwise stated. Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational and the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation, behind BHP, producing iron ore, copper, diamonds, gold and uranium. Rio Tinto made history last week by posting the second biggest profit in Australian corporate history, the biggest belonging to BHP.

They have decided to reward their shareholders with Australia’s biggest ever dividend worth $16.8 billion, which is roughly $23 billion AUD. The $21.4 billion of underlying earnings for 2021 was the biggest in all of Rio Tinto’s 149 year history. The achievement has allowed a dividend payment of $4.79 per share.

The final and special dividends took Rio Tinto’s total dividends for the year to a record-breaking $10.40 per share. The total dividends paid by Rio Tinto for the year is almost doubled the previous year’s $5.57. The greatest profit recorded by an Australian company was BHP.

They set this record in 2011 with a recorded $21.68 billion in underlying profit. Comparing both companies, BHP’s record profit was when the Australian dollar was much stronger than today. This means the profit announced by Rio Tinto would be much bigger than BHP, in Australian dollars, $22.5 billion vs $23 billion AUD.

This does not take into account inflation. Rio Tinto’s great result was largely attributed to its most important commodity, iron ore. However, the decade high prices for copper and aluminium have also bolstered their profits.

The shareholder returns unleashed by Rio Tinto over the past four years rank as the four biggest in the company’s history, meaning shareholders in the miner are enjoying a golden era of returns. The “golden era” was initially built on the proceeds of asset divestments, however, Australian mining companies have been fortunate due to rival mining companies in Brazil suffering massive dam failures in 2019. Australia was able to capitalise on the weak iron ore supply in the aftermath.

The strong operating environment for mining companies like Rio Tinto has only continued since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had prompted governments to announce stimulus spending on infrastructure which drove strong demand for the raw materials which were produced by the likes of Rio Tinto and BHP. Most of Rio’s record setting dividend will be paid to shareholders outside of Australia; the company’s biggest shareholder is Chinese state-owned entity Chinalco while most investors own the stock through the London Stock Exchange.

All in all, the mining industry is currently experiencing a strong year. Rio Tinto, being one of the biggest players, has set the benchmark for other companies in the industry. The strong start to the year is a good indication as to where the industry is going.

If you would like to take this opportunity to invest in Rio Tinto Group and don’t already have a trading account, you can register for a Shares or Shares CFD account at GO Markets. Sources: ASX, Wikipedia, AFR.