Election of new South Korean President could prove hawkish
Former top prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol won the election as South Korea’s president, returning the conservative opposition to power after five years and signalling a hawkish turn in the country’s relations with China and North Korea. “The race is over and now we need to be united as one for the sake of the people and the country,” Yoon told supporters and party officials Thursday morning. Yoon had 48.6% of the votes, compared with Lee’s 47.8% with 99% of the votes counted. The new leader will take office in May. Yoon’s appointment to office is likely to see a stronger military alliance with the US, and “could also mean a chill for relations with neighbors North Korea and China after Yoon said he backed the option of a preemptive strike if Pyongyang posed an immediate threat and called for a new deployment of a U.S.-made missile interceptor system known as THAAD,” Bloomberg reports.

2. Positive development in Ukraine war a plus for stocks
After stock markets have fallen heavily on the Russian-Ukraine war’s impact on surging oil and other commodity prices, share prices in overseas markets rose strongly overnight. If war caused oil and wheat prices to boom, which in turn spooked the overall stock market, what do we make about a near 8% rise in the German stock market and a 7% spike in the French market overnight? Oil and other commodity prices fell overnight on OPEC agreeing to increase the supply of oil and news that Ukraine might decide to become a neutral non-NATO country, which could satisfy Vladimir Putin.

3. Airfares predicted to skyrocket
The good news about falling oil prices comes as Flight Centre’s boss warns airfares are about to skyrocket. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has warned that airfares will rise 7% if the oil price remained at $US120 a barrel but Flight Centre MD and founder, Graham Turner, thinks it could be twice that! He sees oil at $US200 a barrel and that could push up airfares by 15%!

4. Putin to suffer Big Mac withdrawal
Russians are having to cope with a lack of products and resources as the West refuses to trade with the country, and now McDonald’s has closed down all its stores. Vladimir Putin has been slapped with a big Mac boycott, as the US hamburger-maker closed 850 stores in Russia. The first store opened two months after the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989, and now Macca’s exit adds to the exodus of the likes of Coke, Pepsi, Starbucks, BP and other big-brand multinational operations. Russia is being de-Wested!

5. ASX on the up
ASX futures were up 12 points or 0.2% to 7049 near 7.05am AEDT, with the AUD +0.8% to 73.26 US cents. On Wall St: Dow +2.3% S&P 500 +2.9% Nasdaq +3.9%. 2-year yield: US +0.05% (1.67%) Australia +0.05% (1.23%). 10-year yield: US +0.07% (1.93%) Australia +0.09% (2.31%).