Major shockwaves

Global trade dropped by 3%, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Traffic through Russia’s busiest container ports halved, while the Ukrainian port of Odesa was practically cut off. Elsewhere, although reverberations were felt in the US and even in China, Europe bore the brunt of the impact, with exports falling almost 6%. At the corporate level, Shell estimates a $5 billion write down for withdrawing from Russia, while BP faces five times that amount. And the brewing giant Carlsberg will take a $1.4 billion hit on the sale of its Russian business.

Musk takes Twitter

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has succeeded in his $44 billion takeover bid for Twitter. The deal, to include over $20 billion in cash, becomes the biggest leveraged buyout in history. After initial resistance, Twitter’s board accepted the offer for what Musk has dubbed the ‘de facto public town square’. Elsewhere in the tech sector, Netflix shares fell almost 40%, when the streaming giant forecast two million fewer subscribers for the current quarter. And among other lockdown darlings, Peloton crashed as sales skidded and Just Eat Takeaway failed to deliver on forecasts.

China locks down

Shanghai, China’s financial hub, was among major cities locked down in response to Covid-19 outbreaks. The stringent zero-Covid policy has called Chinese GDP growth targets for this year into question, after retail sales dropped by 3.5% in March alone. What’s more, the renewed lockdowns have brought fresh bouts of disruption to manufacturing supply chains in the Far East, likely further damaging global trade. Meanwhile, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) cut its global GDP forecast sharply, warning of the danger to growth from the pandemic debt mountains built up in China and elsewhere.