SHINING LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

“We are shutting down EU airspace for Russian-owned, Russian-registered or Russian-controlled aircraft” –URSULA VON DER LEYEN, THE HEAD OF THE

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

AHEAD OF ITS FIRST SPAC APPROVAL, DUBAI’S SHUAA CAPITAL SAYS IT WANTS TO LAUNCH MORE

Dubai-listed investment bank Shuaa Capital is still in the final stages before its first blank-check company can be listed on the Nasdaq in the United States, but the bank is already eager to launch more special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in the near future. “The intention is to raise the other SPACs within quick succession,” said Fawad Tariq Khan, managing director and head of investment banking at Shuaa Capital. In 2021, the bank said it wanted to set up three such companies with capital of $200 million each. “For some of these businesses that are growing and have global ambitions … a Nasdaq listing gives them currency for future acquisitions, future growth and so on,” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” in an exclusive interview.

NEXT BITCOIN BULL RUN WON’T HAPPEN UNTIL END 2024

Bitcoin may not see a bull market until late 2024 or the beginning of 2025, if past price cycles are any indication, according to the co-founder of Huobi, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Du Jun told CNBC that bitcoin bull markets are closely tied to a process called halving, which occurs every few years. This relates to so-called miners on the bitcoin network, which run powerful specialized computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles to validate transactions on the bitcoin network. Miners are rewarded in bitcoin as a result. Halving is written into bitcoin’s underlying code and cuts in half the reward that so-called miners get for validating transactions on the cryptocurrency’s network. It occurs roughly every four years.

EUROPEAN STOCKS WRAP UP WORST MONTH SINCE OCTOBER 2020

European stocks closed higher, the last trading day of January, as investors weighed upcoming central bank decisions and geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index provisionally closed up 0.6%, with tech stocks jumping 2.9% to lead gains as most sectors and major bourses entered positive territory. The benchmark is on pace for its worst month since October 2020, however, as investors reassess their allocations amid fears over higher interest rates. In terms of individual share price movement, British biotech firm Oxford Nanopore climbed 7% to lead the Stoxx 600. At the bottom of the European blue chip index, French care home operator Orpea slid 7% after firing its CEO following allegations of patient abuse.