The main events by the morning: December 24

• Investors are massively closing their shorts amid the growth of the Moscow Exchange index. The MOEX index has grown by more than 12% over the past two days, which forced investors who bet on its decline to urgently close short positions. Despite the growth, the index remains 13% below the levels of the beginning of the year and 23% below the local maximum recorded in May. A particularly high volume of closing of shorts is observed in the OFZ market.

• The Central Bank of the Russian Federation warned about the danger of lowering the key rate. In response to a request from a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Central Bank stressed that lowering the key rate in the current economic conditions carries risks. In conditions of shortage of labor and other resources, cheap loans can lead to higher costs for salaries and investments, which will accelerate inflation.

• Cryptocurrency mining will be banned in a number of Russian regions until 2031. The government has imposed a ban on cryptocurrency mining in 10 regions of the country, starting on January 1, 2025. The restrictions will last until March 2031 and apply to the following territories: the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya), new regions (DNR, LNR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions) and the Far East (areas of Irkutsk region, Buryatia and Transbaikalia during peak energy consumption).

• Trump wants to buy Greenland and take back the Panama Canal. The President–elect of the United States announced his intentions during his first term of office - Greenland is needed to control the Northern Sea Route. According to Trump, the tariffs for passage through the Panama Canal are too high for American companies. However, Denmark is adamant on this issue: they will not sell Greenland.

• European gas reserves are rapidly declining. Since the completion of the storage filling season in September, gas reserves have decreased by 19%, and now they are 75% full. Such rates of storage emptying have not been observed since 2021. The main reasons are a sharp cold snap and a decrease in LNG supplies. Europe risks facing an energy crisis, as the contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine expires in December, which is already fueling price increases: the cost of a thousand cubic meters of gas has reached $495.