Costco confirmed it will start limiting purchases on essential household products for what has become a perfect storm of supply chain delays for many retailers. "We are putting some limitations on key items like bath tissues, roll towels, Kirkland Signature water, high demand cleaning-related skews related to the uptick in the delta-related demand," https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/costco-limit-purchases-supply-chain-inflation-pressure

As the frontier of Europe’s energy crisis moves north, dwindling water stocks are exacerbating the squeeze in the Nordic region. Nordic power prices were five times higher in September than a year ago. That’s hitting everyone from power-hungry factories and miners, to students struggling with their bills. Inflation is rocketing. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-03/europe-s-power-crisis-is-moving-north-as-water-shortage-worsens

Besides central bank digital currency (CDBC) issuance, the IMF further recommends “proportionate regulation to the risk and in line with those of global stablecoins.” In addition to CBDC implementation, de-dollarization policies will help governments tackle macro-financial risks. https://cointelegraph.com/news/imf-recommends-cbdc-and-global-crypto-standards-for-financial-stability

Africa- Zimbabwe - The statement attributed the decline in world supply to drought and floods, which has increased the cost of importing the grain into the country. https://bulawayo24.com/news/national/209834

Annual food inflation of nearly 30%, a global jump in commodity prices and the sharp depreciation of the lira currency have driven inflation higher throughout the year. https://news.yahoo.com/turkey-open-1-000-markets-151703460.html

“It’s a perfect storm of supply events right now. We’re in a pretty crazy market,” Lawson added. “I’d say nitrogen fertilizer (prices have) moved the highest because of the issues in Louisiana and the issues in Europe. Those are where you make fertilizer with urea and UAN (urea ammonium nitrate), a liquid form of nitrogen which is quite popular in Canada.” https://www.agcanada.com/daily/perfect-storm-causes-fertilizer-price-spikes

UK - Millions of pounds were swiped from Barclays accounts in a series of coordinated cyberattacks by a fraudster using a Monzo account and a payments initiation service provider (PISP), PISPs are a newer concept, introduced by the revised European Payment Services Directive (PSD2), and give retail customers the ability to pay companies directly from their bank account instead of using a debit or credit card. https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2021/barclays-hacked-cyberthieves-monzo-account-pisp/

The People’s Bank of China, the country's central bank, has announced that all transactions of crypto-currencies are illegal, effectively banning digital coins. "Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities," the bank said. It added that cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Tether, are not fiat currencies and cannot be circulated. https://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Markets/Is-Chinas-Digital-Yuan-The-Death-Knell-For-Crypto.html

Britain faces a ‘double whammy’ of food-price rises that will squeeze consumers already facing drastic hikes in energy and household bills. David Sables, a food industry veteran who helps suppliers negotiate with big firms, said the first set of price hikes were linked to rising cost of commodities, raw materials and labour in recent months. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/uk-faces-a-double-whammy-of-food-price-rises-that-squeezes-consumers/ar-AAP4LGH

Household electricity bills will rise by 29.8% for the typical family and gas bills will go up by 14.4%, Italy’s energy regulatory authority Arera confirmed. he increase comes amid surging energy costs across Europe, and beyond. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/electricity-bills-italy-rise-almost-30-percent-friday

UK- Food banks have said they will have to shrink the size of the parcels they give to struggling families owing to declining stock levels caused by the HGV crisis, supply shortages and a collapse in public donations. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/04/food-banks-warn-of-smaller-parcels-due-to-hgv-supply-shortages

Russian wheat export prices rose for 12th consecutive week, supported by robust demand and following higher global benchmarks. Russian wheat with 12.5% protein loading from Black Sea ports for supply in the first half of November was $307 a tonne, free on board (FOB), at the end of last week, https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/russian-wheat-up-for-12th-week-amid-higher-global-benchmarks-2021-10-04

UK - Blackpool pig farmer Wayne Baguley, 63, said he has “plenty” of animals, though he warned some may be culled – with their meat wasted – because of bottle-necks elsewhere. "It's not that there's not enough meat in the country, it's the fact that they are not getting it through the system. They may have to start culling pigs if it continues. "If you keep them on the farm too long they can go overweight, and that means they lose sometimes 30 per cent of the value." https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/business/local-meat-farms-operating-at-50-percent-due-to-labour-shortage-and-lack-of-drivers-3406840

US- The paper was scheduled to be released earlier in the summer but was delayed. It represents the central bank's first concrete step forward in exploring the use of digital currencies in the U.S. economy and could pave the way for a Fed-backed digital dollar. https://www.investopedia.com/fed-to-release-paper-exploring-launch-of-digital-dollar-5204490

The timing of the widespread outages comes as a Facebook whistleblower will be testifying before Congress on Tuesday. The whistleblower appeared on "60 Minutes" Sunday, detailing the tech company's mission to put profit before doing "what was good for the public," including clamping down on hate speech. Shares of the tech company slid 6% by early afternoon, tumbling not just on the whistleblower but also the global outage. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/facebook-instagram-whatsapp-experience-global-outages

Sputnik News-Russia- In late September, an announcement was posted on a hacking forum that claimed to have the name, email, phone number, location, gender, and user ID of 1.5 billion Facebook users. One prospective buyer has allegedly been quoted at $5,000 per 1 million Facebook accounts. This would value the entire set of Facebook user data at $7.5 million. In a subsequent post, the seller alleges to represented a large company that works to scrape Facebook for data. https://sputniknews.com/20211004/data-of-over-15-billion-facebook-users-reportedly-being-sold-on-hacker-forum-amid-worldwide-outage-1089662906.html

Hong Kong’s de facto central bank has taken a “first step” in its exploration of a digital currency, and has sought feedback from academics as well as the finance industry. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued a 50-page white paper called “e-HKD: A technical perspective” with the idea of exploring potential architecture and design options for the digital currency. https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3151175/hong-kong-monetary-authority-takes-first-steps-digital

Another week of heavy rains has triggered an outbreak of fungal black pod disease in some of Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing regions, farmers said on Monday, as the marketing season at the world's top producer of the bean kicks off. https://www.esmmagazine.com/supply-chain/rains-fuel-black-pod-outbreak-ivory-coast-cocoa-marketing-begins-148671

European energy prices soared to fresh records amid worsening fears over supply, with U.K. natural gas futures exceeding the threshold of 300 pence a therm for the first time ever. Surging costs are threatening to raise inflation and starting to weigh on industrial production, with some companies in Europe forced to cut output. Concerns over gas storage levels in Europe are building as winter approaches, helping drive prices ever higher. https://ca.news.yahoo.com/europe-gas-power-surge-records-093323557.html

US- Indiana- Johnson Memorial Health Hospital is currently operating under electronic health record downtime procedures, after a cyberattack struck its computer network on Oct. 2. The health system operates a number of primary care sites, specialist offices, and other facilities across three Indiana counties. https://www.scmagazine.com/news/incident-response/cyberattack-drives-johnson-memorial-into-ehr-downtime-procedures

India’s ambitious plan to cut the use of fossil fuels by promoting ethanol derived from rice, corn and sugar is drawing criticism from some experts who warn the move could undermine food security in the world’s second-most populous country. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/why-india-s-ambitious-ethanol-plan-may-spark-food-security-fears-11633477972075.html