News.Az present the video material released by the SSS regarding the incident:
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“Economic activity across Saudi Arabia continues to operate normally,” the Finance Ministry’s spokesperson said in a statement that referred to “recent developments” but did not directly mention the conflict, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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“We continue to assess economic and fiscal indicators on an ongoing basis, and current data confirm that our fiscal position and medium-term outlook remain solid”, the statement added.
Oil prices have surged 20 percent since last Friday, and the war has slashed vital hydrocarbon exports via the Strait of Hormuz and halted output at facilities including Saudi Aramco’s biggest domestic oil refinery.
The post Saudi Arabia claims strong fiscal position amid Iran conflict appeared first on azeritimes.com.
In close coordination with CENTCOM, this plan will restore confidence in maritime trade, help stabilize international commerce, and support American and allied businesses operating in the Middle East during the conflict with Iran, News.Az reports, citing DFC.
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This announcement marks a key milestone toward the rapid implementation of President Trump’s directive to utilize DFC’s innovative financial toolkit to safeguard the continued flow of trade.
“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Bessent for their support and approval of DFC’s plan to restore confidence in maritime trade and stabilize international markets. Working alongside CENTCOM, DFC coverage will offer a level of security no other policy can provide. We are confident that our reinsurance plan will get oil, gasoline, LNG, jet fuel, and fertilizer through the Strait of Hormuz and flowing again to the world,” said DFC CEO Ben Black.”
Maritime Reinsurance details:
- DFC reinsurance facility will insure losses up to approximately $20 billion on a rolling basis.
- This revolving insurance offering will apply only to vessels that meet the criteria.
- Insurance will focus on Hull & Machinery and Cargo to start.
- DFC has identified best-in-class, preferred American insurance partners.
- DFC and Treasury are coordinating closely with CENTCOM on next steps in the implementation of this plan.
DFC will continue to provide additional information as it becomes available. Businesses and financial institutions seeking access to DFC’s Maritime Reinsurance product should contact DFC directly at maritime@dfc.gov.
The post US launches $20B plan for Gulf maritime reinsurance appeared first on azeritimes.com.
The announcements from two of the three leading cloud infrastructure vendors follow the Defense Department’s official designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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“We understand that the Determination does not preclude us from working with Anthropic on non-defense related projects, and their products remain available through our platforms, like Google Cloud,” a Google spokesperson said Friday.
Amazon, the leader in public cloud, followed on Friday, saying it will continue offering Anthropic’s AI technology to its cloud customers, excluding work involving the DOD.
Anthropic’s Claude models are available through Google Cloud via the Vertex AI platform. The search giant is also a significant financial backer of Anthropic and, in January 2025, agreed to an additional $1 billion investment, adding to its previous $2 billion stake.
Anthropic uses Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure to train its models, and recently expanded the partnership by gaining access to up to 1 million of Google’s custom tensor processing units (TPUs).
After Anthropic refused to agree to the DOD’s requested terms of use last week, President Donald Trump instructed federal agencies to stop using the company’s technology, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said its work with Anthropic would wind down over six months. CNBC has confirmed that Anthropic models were used by the U.S. in its latest attack on Iran.
Some defense technology companies have told employees to stop using Anthropic’s Claude models and to switch to alternatives, including from rival OpenAI.
Microsoft was the first major partner to say it will keep working with Anthropic after the Pentagon’s actions.
“Our lawyers have studied the designation and have concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers — other than the Department of War,” Microsoft said late Thursday.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said on Thursday that his company has “no choice” but to challenge the supply chain risk designation in court.
The post Google reassures users, like Microsoft, Anthropic is not limited to defense appeared first on azeritimes.com.
The US embassy in Baghdad has said earlier on Friday that Iran-aligned militia groups may seek to target hotels frequented by foreigners in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, according to a post on X, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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The post Drone targets hotel in Erbil, Iraq, say security sources appeared first on azeritimes.com.
Categories
Удар Израиля по Бейруту
⚡️ Azerbaijani diplomats have been evacuated from Iran.
#Azerbaijan #Iran #Diplomacy #Evacuation #Tehran #Nakhchivan #SouthCaucasus #Geopolitics #BreakingNews #btnews pic.x.com/MZavIpoD8E
— BT News (@btn_az) Mar 6, 2026
A messy start to 2026: Balancing January’s highs and February’s lows
The February jobs numbers came in cooler than expected, according to Friday’s BLS employment report. Nonfarm payrolls edged down by 92,000 in February while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%. Stack this against January’s revised gain of 126,000 and factor in a 65,000-job downward revision to December, and the picture for the start of 2026 looks more volatile than last month’s rosy reading suggested. Overall, the first two months of the year suggest we shouldn’t overreact to either January’s highs or February’s lows. It does appear the “low-hire, low-fire” job market is still with us, and the initial numbers are getting a bit messier.
But expect the Fed to stay on pause
For the Federal Reserve, this report slightly complicates the labor side of the equation, but is unlikely to change much in the near term. While hiring slowed and the unemployment rate missed the Chicago Fed’s 4.27% projection, average hourly earnings rose a firm 0.4% for the month (+3.8%). Policymakers were never likely to overreact to January’s positive report, and Friday’s data keeps the focus squarely on the inflation prints arriving next week, CPI on March 11, and PCE (the Fed’s preferred gauge) on March 13. Prediction markets are still putting the chances of a March rate cut at less than 5%. With new committee members like Beth Hammack prioritizing price stability, Friday’s “soft surprise” jobs report likely reinforces the Fed’s current pause as it waits for core PCE to move well below its stubborn ~3% level.
Housing outlook: Look past weekly rate volatility to the year-over-year win
On the housing side, we should be careful not to “scoreboard watch” weekly mortgage rate volatility too much. It was tempting to celebrate a 5-handle last week and equally tempting to lament this week’s 20-basis-point surge in 10-year yields as a sign that lower mortgage rates were short-lived. The relevant benchmark for the spring season is the year-over-year change, not a February to March comparison. At 6%, mortgage rates remain significantly lower than the 6.63% we saw this time last spring, representing a major boost in real purchasing power for buyers now entering the market. We are already seeing the impact via “green shoots” in February’s data: Pending sales hit their highest annual gain since 2024 and new for-sale listings are climbing. As long as the labor market continues to settle, the combination of stable employment and a 2.1% dip in median list prices means the conditions for a smooth takeoff in the housing market are forming nicely.
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The post Why February ‘Soft Surprise’ Jobs Report Shouldn’t Temper Cautious Optimism for Spring Housing appeared first on azeritimes.com.