Contents
Gold prices climb as UN removes Russia from Human Rights council
Gold prices were trading higher on Thursday, as markets the UN announced that Russia was being removed from the human right council.
The United Nations voted to remove Russia from the council, following the events in Bucha, where nearly 300 Ukrainian civilians were reported to have been executed by Russian forces.
Prior to the vote, Ukraine’s Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya stated that, “Bucha and dozens of other Ukrainian cities and villages, where thousands of peaceful residents have been killed, tortured, raped, abducted and robbed by the Russian army, serve as an example of how dramatically far the Russian Federation has gone from its initial declarations in the Human Rights domain.”
💡 Could Putin face war crime charges? Individually speaking, its unlikely that the Russian leader would face criminal charges. The UN’s highest court handles conflicts between states, the international criminal court, despite declarations of its top prosecutor, doesn’t have the best track record for prosecuting heads of state. Since Russia’s exit from the counsel of Europe, the most likely way there would be any prosecution of Russian leaders – according to experts – would be through the universal jurisdiction doctrine by condemning Russian authorities (including Putin) of hostes humani generis — “enemies of all mankind.” This doctrine has allowed Spanish courts to try Agusto Pinochet and a German court to sentence a syrian intelligence officer to life in prison. |
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy went on to add that, “The Russian military and those who gave them orders must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes in Ukraine.”
XAUUSD hit an intraday high of $1,937 on the news.
EURUSD nears multi-year lows following FOMC minutes
EURUSD continued to trade close to multi-year lows today, following the release of the FOMC minutes on Wednesday.
The minutes showed that several members of the committee were open to the prospect of higher rate hikes, as well as a tightening of the current balance sheet.
An excerpt from the minutes had said that “participants agreed they had made substantial progress on the plan and that the Committee was well placed to begin the process of reducing the size of the balance sheet as early as after the conclusion of its upcoming meeting in May”.
Today’s move also came as Initial jobless claims had fallen by more than expected.
Figures from the Labor Department reported that claims fell by 5,000 to 166,000 in the week ended April 2nd.
Shares in computer giant HP soared on Thursday, as a filing showed that Berkshire Hathaway had bought additional shares in the company. The company controlled by Warren Buffet, is said to have purchased around $4.2 billion worth of HP stock.
This latest purchase is roughly 11.4% of the company, or 11.1 million shares, which is around 10% of Berkshire current HP holdings.
Berkshire already owned nearly 121 million HP shares, prior to this week’s purchase.
As of writing this, HP stock was up nearly 16%.
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
–Warren Buffett.