
ELECTIONS IN TURKEY
12 May 2023
Elections in TurkeyDear traders!
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that presidential elections in Turkey will be held on May 14, 2023. This event may provoke a sharp increase in volatility of Turkish Lira instruments and, as a consequence, lead to increased trading risks.
As we care about our clients, we strongly recommend all traders to be more attentive and also:
Maintain a margin level of at least 500%;
Use protective Stop-loss orders;
to adjust the volume of current open positions at their own discretion, if necessary.
It should be noted that in case of significant increase of volatility on financial markets with changing conditions at the liquidity providers of the company the following is possible: increase of spreads and levels of orders setting, change of margin requirements for any instruments both for previously opened positions and for new ones, introduction of "Close only" mode or suspension of trading in accordance with the regulatory documents of the company.
Please consider this information when planning work on the financial markets.
DOWNWARD SPIRAL. A LONG DROP IN OIL PRICES

A long drop in oil pricesDear clients,
Oil prices fell Friday, setting a fourth weekly decline, as renewed economic troubles in the U.S. and China revived worries about fuel demand growth in the world's two largest oil consumers.
Brent crude futures fell 48 cents, or 0.64%, to $74.50 a barrel by 06:35 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate, on the other hand, lost 39 cents, or 0.55%, to $70.48.
Both benchmarks will fall about 1.1% over the week, marking the longest streak of weekly declines since November 2021.
With negotiations over the U.S. government debt ceiling deadlocked and renewed fears that another regional bank is in crisis, fears that the U.S. will enter a recession are growing. A decline in new corporate loans in China and weaker economic data released there earlier in the week raised doubts again about the stimulation of oil demand growth as the country recovers from COVID restrictions.
The price rose earlier Friday, after falling during the previous two sessions, on some demand expectations following comments from the U.S. Secretary of Energy that the States might buy oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The U.S. government has said it will buy oil when prices are at or below $67-72 a barrel at all times.
However, negotiations to raise the $31.4 trillion U.S. federal debt limit may not reach an agreement in time to prevent a default on the national debt, which could cause serious market turmoil. China's consumer price data for April rose slower than expected and factory price deflation has deepened, suggesting more stimulus is needed.
The oil market largely ignored the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) global oil demand forecast for 2023, which projected demand growth in China, the world's biggest oil importer.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: THREATS TO THE TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

Dear clients,
A prolonged period of economic downturn in the U.S. will cause tech stocks to plummet at a time when they are attracting a lot of investor money, strategists at Bank of America Corp. say.
Michael Hartnett's team expects the recession to "crack credit and tech" just as it did in 2008, according to Friday's note.
Investors poured $3.8 billion into technology stocks in the week ended May 10, the largest inflow since December 2021, BofA reported, citing data from EPFR Global. On the other hand, $2.1 billion was pulled out of financial stocks, the biggest buyout since May 2022, amid turmoil at regional U.S. banks.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index is up 22% this year as investors expect the Federal Reserve to begin easing monetary policy soon, easing pressure on the rate-sensitive sector. And while earnings in this sector will continue to fall from last year, traders already expect a recovery in 2024.
Hartnett, who correctly predicted last year that recession fears would cause stocks to pull back, warned that the U.S. central bank was unlikely to pause rate hikes amid high inflation, as well as low unemployment and presidential approval. That echoes the views of Bloomberg Intelligence strategists, who view the likelihood of weakening tech, media and telecom stocks as they "face the reality of longer-term interest rate hikes and a softening of the earnings outlook."
Hartnett thinks negative wage data will be a buying signal for cyclical economic-related stocks, such as tech stocks, in 2023. The U.S. labor market has proven resilient, with hiring and worker wage growth accelerating in April.
Other notable flows over the past week included a slowdown in cash inflows - $13.8 billion went into that asset class. At the same time, Treasuries saw the largest inflows in the past six weeks, with $6.3 billion. U.S. and European equity funds bought $2.7 billion and $2.2 billion each, respectively.