Dutch pension funds sold €88 billion worth of assets in the first half of 2022. They used part of the proceeds to meet the margin requirements under derivatives contracts, which had risen due to increased interest rates. Dutch pension funds sold a large proportion of their equities and money market fund stakes, while increasing the share of bonds.

Former Naftogaz chair Andriy Kobolev says that if Russia cuts off gas supply to Europe this winter, it will be the end of Gazprom’s presence in European markets. Russia wants to remain Europe’s primary gas supplier. It is now burning gas, because it cannot reduce output. Shutting down a shaft means a 50% lower output when extraction resumes.

Rapid interest-rate hikes deployed by policy makers have brought to an end a four-decade bull market in bonds. That’s creating a difficult environment for investors, with bonds and stocks sinking in tandem. MSCI's Index of global stocks has slumped 19% this year. Fixed-income investors are showing plenty of demand for government bonds as yields rise.

In the wholesale power market, the price paid to the costliest generator needed to meet demand is paid to all. That is usually a gas-fired power station, even though renewables and nuclear plants supply around 60%. Eventually, “someone has to pull the plug and make price equal cost”, says Sir Dieter Helm, an economist at Oxford University.

Uranium reserves of 7.6 million tons are on a course to reach exhaustion within a century. The Indian institute IISER was successful in extracting uranium from seawater, which contains 1,000-times more uranium than conventional sources. The challenge was to capture it cost-effectively. They managed to capture 95% of uranium within two hours.

Company says it is reducing production for few hours where possible as ability to cool plants with river water is restricted. However, half of EDF’s 56 nuclear reactors are offline due to planned maintenance and work to repair corrosion which was delayed by the pandemic. France is relying on expensive imports from the neighbouring countries.

The share of green and sustainable bonds rose from 2% of all bonds globally in 2018 to 12% at the end of 2021, but investors have become less willing to pay the premium. They have wised up to bogus environmental claims, or so-called greenwashing. But the outflows from ESG bond funds in 2022 have been much lower than outflows from other bond funds.

It has become more difficult for European companies to raise money in the bond market. Bond transactions are being withdrawn. Fund managers are demanding much higher returns, but companies are balking at this higher price tag. The Bank of England wants to sell down its corporate bond portfolio and the ECB asset purchase programme is finishing.

Greening of “grey” industries offers interesting investment opportunities to withstand a high-inflation regime. EU’s green taxonomy sees investments as either green or not. But only 2% of the revenues of Europe’s top 50 companies would be judged to have come from green operations under the EU taxonomy, according to a study by ISS ESG.

A scorching heat wave is pushing the Texas grid to the brink. Power demand is surging as people crank up air conditioners. But wind speeds have fallen to extremely low levels and that means the state’s fleet of turbines is at just 8% of their potential output. Texas may be America’s oil and gas hub, but it’s also long been the country’s biggest wind-power state.

The share of the EU's gas supply provided by Russia dropped to 20% in June 2022. The gap of over 300 TWh in the first 6 months of 2022 compared to 2021 has been filled mostly by 240 TWh of additional imports of LNG. Because the internal gas market is not perfectly connected, countries will need to reduce their gas consumption by 0-54%.

Electricite de France SA may have to reduce output at some of its nuclear reactors, as drought reduces the amount of water available for cooling. This adds further strain to Europe’s energy supply. France may have to import more power in the coming months because half of its 56 nuclear reactors are halted for repairs or planned maintenance.