Chicago wheat futures were higher on Monday as the market continued to keep a close watch on tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wv1 was up 0.5% at $7.84 a bushel. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/grains-wheat-edges-up-focus-remains-on-russia-ukraine-tensions

Russia may permit the use of gold-backed stablecoins and the mining of cryptocurrencies under government control. Cryptocurrencies should be banned, but Russia could make use of a stablecoin denominated in gold and under state control. The gold-backed stablecoin could be similar to a golden ruble and Russia can employ it to circumvent sanctions and the policy of containment applied against the country. https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/duma-deputy-chair-insists-gold-backed-stablecoins-crypto-mining-allowed-russia-circumvent

Misconfigurations in smart contracts are being exploited by scammers to create malicious cryptocurrency tokens with the goal of stealing funds from unsuspecting users. The instances of token fraud in the wild include hiding 99% fee functions and concealing backdoor routines. a legitimate contract called Levyathan was hacked after its developers inadvertently uploaded the wallet's private key to their GitHub repository, enabling the exploiter to mint an infinite number of tokens and steal funds from the contract. https://thehackernews.com/2022/01/hackers-creating-fraudulent-crypto.html

The de facto central bank of South Korea has reportedly carried out testing the basic functionalities of a CBDC including manufacturing, issuing, and distribution in a “simulation environment in the cloud,” “The Bank of Korea will partner with the IT and finance industry to seek a utilization plan for the CBDC,” https://www.fxempire.com/news/article/south-korea-enters-phase-2-of-cbdc-tests-after-successful-initial-trials-875286

Turkey slashed electricity supplies to industry after Iran announced a temporary halt in natural gas exports, a move that threatens to hit critical sales abroad. The government has imposed three days of power outages a week in the country’s hundreds of organized industrial zones. Turkey had 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas in storage as of Jan. 18, 42% less than a year earlier. https://www.energyconnects.com/news/utilities/2022/january/largest-ever-power-cuts-hit-turkey-s-industrial-production/

Canada - “We import well over $25 billion worth of food from the U.S. every year,”. “Seventy percent of it goes through the border with truckers. With the vaccine mandate, we just took eight thousand to 16,000 truckers from the system.” Videos circulating on social media show a different scene, with empty shelves and a depleting food supply. One video on TikTok shows an empty aisle at Walmart that would have typically been full of frozen goods. Another video shows empty shelves and only a limited number of frozen foods at a Metro in Ottawa. https://workaccesspermit.com/grocery-stores-food-shortages-in-canada/

Food Security/Poultry -
Already in the last two months, multiple cases had been detected in Canada and Europe, but these new cases are reportedly the first seen in the wild in the United States in five years. And while Eurasian H5 avian influenza (the strain found) is not considered a high risk to humans, the illness can quickly affect bird populations. https://www.nxsttv.com/nmw/news/usda-issues-alert-over-bird-flu-after-first-cases-in-five-years/

Canada's foreign affairs department was hit with a cyberattack last week, according to the Treasury Board of Canada. Some access the internet and internet-based services are not currently available. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/canada-e2-80-99s-foreign-affairs-department-hit-with-cyberattack/ar-AAT6zom

Europe went into the winter season with low stocks of natural gas, which is used for heating homes and generating electricity. Shrinking domestic energy production in places like the Netherlands, wimpy breezes that failed to spin wind turbines as much as hoped, booming Asian demand sucking gas eastwards, and maintenance trouble at French nuclear plants have coalesced into a shortage few saw coming. https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/01/15/europes-energy-crisis-will-trigger-its-worst-neuroses

Spain's producer price inflation accelerated for an eleventh month in December to its highest level on record since the series began in January 1976. The industrial producer price index climbed 35.9 percent year-on-year. Energy prices surged 95.9 percent. Intermediate goods prices surged 20.6 percent year-on-year.

Millions of people were left for hours without electricity on Tuesday when a huge power blackout hit cities in three Central Asian countries. Areas of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan were affected when a shared power line was disconnected. It caused traffic jams, airport delays and other public transport disruptions across the ex-Soviet nations. Due to "a significant emergency imbalance" there was a power surge and the connection was cut, grid operator KEGOC said. https://hksar.org/central-asia-blackout-leaves-millions-without-power

Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK)warned that financial firms are not allowed to offer and facilitate sales of crypto assets amid a boom in crypto trading in Southeast Asia's largest economy. "OJK has strictly prohibited financial service institutions from using, marketing, and/or facilitating crypto asset trading,". https://news.yahoo.com/indonesia-regulator-says-financial-firms-043503070.html

Unidentified hackers briefly took down a promotional website for Ukraine's foreign ministry for several hours today. The website Ukraine.ua, which aims to promote the country among foreigners, was later restored. The ministry gave no further details. https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/794139.html

Crop sales by farmers for the current marketing season were below a year ago in the U.S., Brazil and Argentina, which together account for more than three-quarters of global corn and soybean exports. Harvest estimates for Brazilian crops have been declining, dashing hopes of a supply recovery and relief from food inflation. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/farmers-hoard-crops-as-dry-brazil-weather-keeps-prices-elevated

Florida, the United States’s biggest producer of oranges, has been hit very hard by a bacterial issue known as citrus greening disease, also called Huanglongbing. As a result, orange production has been low lately, with this season being the lowest production in a whopping 77 years. There is unusual cold weather heading to FL which may further worsen the situation. https://modernfarmer.com/2022/01/florida-small-orange-crop/

US- A new industry report from the National Milk Producers Federation warns milk supply is falling and isn't going to recover in the near term, which could unleash dairy inflation. The dominant features of the basic U.S. dairy situation continue to be tighter milk production, record export volumes, higher prices, sluggish domestic consumption, and dropping inventories. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/milkflation-fears-mount-supply-dwindles-diary-group-warns

Pakistan- The price of wheat in Punjab has broken all records as it is being traded at an all-time high rate of Rs. 2,650-2,700 per maund, equivalent to just over 37 kg, in grain markets all over the province. Chief Minister Punjab, urged to intervene and order the immediate release of the government’s stock of wheat in the grain market to control the surging prices. https://propakistani.pk/2022/01/27/wheat-price-breaks-all-previous-records-in-pakistan/

The two nations "are switching to national currencies" when it comes to bilateral transactions. And though the pair was not planning to "completely switch," he suggested that the introduction of sweeping sanctions by Washington may "somewhat speed up" the process. "The one developed in Russia may well meet our demands at least in payment and settlement relations with Chinese financial and banking organizations." https://www.newsweek.com/russia-navy-trains-china-considers-ditching-us-dollars-over-sanctions-threat-1672939

Russia’s international reserves surged $1.4 billion in a week, hitting a new historical maximum of $639.6 billion. Russia’s international reserves, which are highly liquid foreign assets held by the Bank of Russia and the country’s government, consist of foreign currency funds, special drawing rights in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and monetary gold. https://www.rt.com/business/547530-russian-reserves-hit-record/

Chip inventory held by manufacturers has plummeted to an average of just five days’ supply, as the global semiconductor shortage continues to wreak havoc on industry, the US Department of Commerce has warned. US companies remain vulnerable to the weakened supply chain, adding that some could be forced to temporarily close and furlough workers in the event of even minor disruptions. The chip crunch has hit carmakers particularly hard since manufacturers diverted supplies during the pandemic towards customers in consumer electronics, which pay more for semiconductors. Tesla feeling the hurt today. https://www.ft.com/content/71958118-8daa-47a7-b8a4-11608d6805f4

The two nations combined account for 29% of global wheat exports. Ukraine is also among the top exporters of barley, corn and rapeseed. Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers to Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer. Middle Eastern buyers benefit from the short sea route via the Bosporus and would have to pay more in shipping costs to bring wheat from the U.S. or Australia. https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-ukraine-tensions-drive-global-wheat-prices-higher-11643630790