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New York and Singapore have emerged as the joint-most expensive cities to live in, according to a new worldwide survey.

The cost of living in 172 of the world’s major cities rocketed an average 8.1% over the past year, driven by factors including the war in Ukraine and supply-chain snarls, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living report.

Tel Aviv, which topped the rankings last year, was bumped into third position, while Hong Kong and Los Angeles rounded out the top five priciest places.

Asian cities tended to escape the steep price rises seen elsewhere, with the average increase in the cost of living at 4.5%, although individual country performance varied due to government policies and currency moves.

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Other key findings from the study included:

• Tokyo and Osaka tumbled down the rankings, dropping 24 and 33 places respectively, as interest rates stayed low
• The Syrian capital Damascus and Libya’s Tripoli are the world’s cheapest places
• Sydney jumped into the top 10 as strong exports buoyed the Aussie dollar
• San Francisco leaped into eighth place, from 24 last year
• The six most expensive Chinese cities all rose up the ranks, with Shanghai entering the top 20

Upasana Dutt, head of worldwide cost of living at EIU, said: “The war in Ukraine, Western sanctions on Russia and China’s zero-Covid policies have caused supply-chain problems that, combined with rising interest rates and exchange-rate shifts, have resulted in a cost-of-living crisis across the world. We can see the impact in this year’s index, with the average price rise across the 172 cities in our survey being the strongest we’ve seen in the 20 years for which we have digital data.”

The survey, which was carried out in August and September this year, compares more than 400 individual prices across over 200 products and services in 172 cities globally.

These are the top 10 most expensive cities in the world, with their 2022 ranking. Some cities are tied:

Singapore — 1

New York, US — 1

Tel Aviv, Israel — 3

Hong Kong, China — 4

Los Angeles, US — 4

Zurich, Switzerland — 6

Geneva, Switzerland — 7

San Francisco, US — 8

Paris, France — 9

Copenhagen, Denmark — 10

Sydney, Australia — 10

A rally in U.S. stocks and bonds powered ahead after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday, but some investors believe a looming recession could cap gains in both asset classes.

Though asset prices have been battered by the Fed’s rate rises this year, momentum has been on the side of the bulls in recent weeks. The S&P 500 (.SPX) has soared nearly 14% from its October low while yields on the 10-year benchmark Treasury, which move inversely to prices, are down at around 3.6%, from a 15-year high of 4.3% earlier this year.

The immediate reaction to Powell’s speech on Wednesday showcased investors’ recently optimistic mood. The S&P 500 soared more than 3% after Powell said the Fed could scale back the pace of its rate increases as soon as December, although he warned there was little clarity on how high rates will ultimately need to rise as the central bank fights the worst outbreak of inflation in decades.

Still, some market participants believe the weeks-long upswing in stocks and bonds is bound to fizzle, a fate that has met a handful of other rebounds this year. The S&P 500 is down 14.4% year-to-date.

Upcoming employment and inflation reports – due on Dec. 2 and Dec. 13, respectively – could become near-term stumbling blocks if they fail to show that the rate rises the central bank has already delivered this year have sufficiently cooled the economy.

U.S. consumer prices rose less than expected in October, supporting the view that inflation was ebbing.

Further ahead, some of Wall Street’s biggest banks are now forecasting that the Fed’s monetary policy tightening will bring on a recession next year.

The inversion of the U.S. Treasury yield curve – a signal that has preceded past downturns – has lent weight to recession predictions. Yields on two-year Treasuries recently exceeded those on 10-year Treasuries by their biggest margin since the dot com bubble.

“Our view is that this is not an enduring rally,” said Jake Jolly, senior investment strategist at BNY Mellon. “The odds are there’s going to be a recession next year, and that’s going to pressure risk assets like equities.”

‘HAWKISH EXPECTATIONS’

Citi’s analysts wrote that the rise in risk asset prices on Wednesday was due to “hawkish expectations that had built up ahead of Powell’s remarks, the assurance of a slowdown to a 50bp rate hike pace, and the absence of a clear escalation of the hawkish message delivered at the early November FOMC meeting.”

Their takeaway: Powell is shifting his focus to non-shelter service inflation, which will be more difficult to slow, “given still very-tight labor markets.” On Wednesday, Powell noted that key price measures for services remain high. Data released earlier in the day showed there were still about 1.7 job openings for each unemployed person.

“Powell seemed to come today and express that they are confident that the brakes are working,” said Jake Schumeier, a portfolio manager at Harbor Capital Advisors, referring to the Fed’s spate of jumbo 75 basis point increases aimed at slowing the economy.

Over the longer term, however, “the market seems positioned for a slowdown, so that will limit the upside once we get past seasonal trends at the end of the year,” he said.

Among the banks predicting a downturn is Bank of America, whose analysts see a broadly flat S&P 500 as markets deal with “recession shock.”

BlackRock Investment Institute said on Wednesday that while a recession is likely, “equity valuations don’t yet reflect the damage ahead.” They are also underweight long-dated government bonds, betting that central banks are unlikely to stop cutting rates in a downturn if inflation stays high.

To what degree economic worries impact the market’s near-term bullish sentiment remains to be seen. The S&P 500 on Wednesday traded above its 200-day moving average for the first time since April, a move that some chart-watching investors view as a sign of short-term equity strength.

In options markets, traders appear more preoccupied with not missing out on more gains in stocks than guarding against future declines. The one-month moving average of daily trading in bearish put contracts against bullish calls on the S&P 500 index-tracking SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust’s options is at its lowest since January 2022, according to Trade Alert data.

“The path of least resistance since the last inflation number has been higher,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “There’s momentum to the upside in place until something outright stops it.”

U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron will celebrate more than 200 years of U.S.-French relations on Thursday but simmering in the background is a dispute over new American subsidies that has riled Europe.

Biden is hosting Macron at the first state visit since the U.S. leader took office in early 2021. Biden and his wife Jill are playing up the pageantry with a colorful arrival ceremony planned and 200 live lobsters flown in from Maine for a glittering state dinner.

The two leaders are to hold talks then conduct a joint news conference at 11:45 a.m. EST (1645 GMT). Macron and his wife, Brigitte, arrived in Washington on Tuesday for his second state visit to the United States since taking office in 2017.

Biden, 80, and Macron, 44, have had many meetings at international gatherings but this will be the most amount of time they have spent in each other’s company.

The two leaders dined together on Wednesday night at an Italian restaurant called Fiola Mare in the historic Georgetown area in a gesture of bonhomie.

Macron is expected to raise French and European concerns about subsidies in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $430 billion bill that offers massive subsidies for U.S.-made products and is aimed at addressing the climate crisis.

European leaders say the legislative package signed by Biden in August is unfair to non-American companies and would be a serious blow to their economies as Europe deals with the fallout from Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.

In a meeting on Wednesday with U.S. lawmakers at the Library of Congress, Macron said the act was “super aggressive” toward European companies, one participant told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Macron told the French community in Washington that the cost of the war in Ukraine was much higher in Europe than in the United States and that Europe risked falling behind if the subsidies siphoned new investments. This could “fragment the West,” he said.

There was no sign that Biden was prepared to make concessions.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the legislation “presents significant opportunities for European firms as well as benefits to EU energy security,” when asked about European concerns.

Macron is the first foreign leader to be given a state dinner at the Biden White House, a sign of his importance to Washington despite some differences with the Biden administration.

The formal dinner in a pavilion on the White House South Lawn will feature music from Jon Batiste, Chardonnay from the Napa Valley and cheeses from Oregon, California and Wisconsin.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will most likely be a major topic in the talks. Both leaders have sought to bolster support for the Ukrainian military.

Macron’s visit came as NATO ministers met in Bucharest and pledged more aid to Ukraine to help against Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure as winter bites.

The alliance, of which the United States and France are founding members, was also discussing how to address challenges posed by China’s military buildup and its cooperation with Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Macron has said in the past that China should not be a focus for NATO.

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Chinese newspapers turned their front pages black on Thursday and flags were put at half mast in mourning for the death of former president Jiang Zemin, while well-wishers laid piles of bouquets outside his childhood home.

Jiang died in his home city of Shanghai just after noon on Wednesday of leukaemia and multiple organ failure, aged 96.

His death has prompted a wave of nostalgia for the relatively more liberal times he oversaw.

A date has yet to be set for his funeral.

The front page of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily devoted its whole front page to Jiang, and carried a large picture of him wearing his trademark “toad” glasses.

“Beloved comrade Jiang Zemin will never be forgotten,” it said in its headline, above a story republishing the official announcement of his death.

Flags flew at half mast on key government buildings and Chinese embassies abroad, while the home pages of e-commerce platforms Taobao and JD.com also turned black and white.

Mourners laid piles of bouquets of white chrysanthemums, a traditional Chinese symbol for mourning, outside Jiang’s childhood home in the eastern city of Yangzhou, a witness told Reuters, declining to be identified given sensitivities about discussing anything political in China.

Some people knelt down in front of his house in a show of respect, the person added.

“Grandpa Jiang, rest in peace,” read a note on one bouquet.

In Shanghai, where Jiang died, police closed off streets but hundreds of people still tried to catch a glimpse of a vehicle thought to be carrying his body, according to images that were shared on Chinese social media.

In one picture, people held up a black and white banner reading “Comrade Jiang Zemin you will forever live in our hearts”.

But foreign governments, political parties and “friendly personages” will not be invited to send delegations or representatives to China to attend the mourning activities, the official Xinhua news agency said.

At one of the largest foreign banks in China, employees have been asked to wear black in meetings with regulators, senior staff have been asked not to be photographed at parties and the bank has put marketing activities on hold for 10 days, a senior executive at the lender told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Jiang’s death comes at a tumultuous time in China, where authorities are grappling with rare widespread street protests among residents fed up with heavy-handed COVID-19 curbs nearly three years into the pandemic.

China is also locked in an increasingly bad-tempered stand-off with the United States and its allies over everything from Chinese threats to democratically-governed Taiwan to trade and human rights issues.

While Jiang could have a fierce temper, his jocular side where he would sometimes sing for foreign dignitaries and joke around with them stand in marked contrast to his stiffer successor Hu Jintao and current President Xi Jinping.

“Having someone educated as leader really is a good thing, RIP,” wrote one user on WeChat adding a candle emoji.

Some Chinese social media users have posted pictures and videos of Jiang speaking or laughing and articles about his 1997 speech at Harvard University in English, reminiscing about an era when China and the West were on better terms.

The U.S. and Japanese governments both expressed their condolences.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that during his two visits to the United States as president as well as multiple other meetings with U.S. officials, Jiang worked to advance ties “while managing our differences – an imperative that continues today”.

Even Taiwan, which Jiang menaced with war games in the run up to the island’s first direct presidential election in 1996, said it had sent its “best wishes” to Jiang’s family, though it added he did “threaten the development of Taiwan’s democratic system and foreign exchanges with force”.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she “practiced and practiced” writing the signature that will soon adorn U.S. dollars in order to avoid the illegible scrawls of her predecessors Tim Geithner and Jack Lew.

“I knew this was something you could really screw up and I wanted to get it right, and I practiced and I practiced,” Yellen told CBS’s late-night comedian Stephen Colbert on Wednesday.

Yellen said people had made fun of the signatures of both Lew, who drew what some said looked like eight circles that were connected, and Geithner, and they ultimately had to redo their signatures. But she said she thought people would be able to read hers.

“You see what you think, but I think you’ll be able to read the letters,” she told Colbert, who promised to do an on-air critique once the money is in circulation next year.

Yellen, the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary, said she would travel to Fort Worth, Texas next week to see the first currency printed with her signature and that of U.S. Treasurer Marilynn Malerba, the first Native woman to hold that post.

“I am going to see the first sheets of currency that have been printed with both of our names,” Yellen said.

Fort Worth is one of just two sites where the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces U.S. currency, along with another site in Washington, D.C.

Malerba’s appointment by President Joe Biden in June paved the way for Yellen’s signature to be added to the U.S. currency, as this was prohibited without a U.S. Treasurer in place. Dollar notes have been printed since Yellen took office in early 2021 with former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s signature on them.

Elon Musk said on Wednesday he expects a wireless brain chip developed by his company Neuralink to begin human clinical trials in six months, after the company missed earlier timelines set by him.

The company is developing brain chip interfaces that it says could enable disabled patients to move and communicate again, with Musk adding on Wednesday that it will also target restoring vision.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas, Neuralink has in recent years been conducting tests on animals as it seeks approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin clinical trials in people.

“We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human,” Musk said during a much-awaited public update on the device.

Speaking to a crowd of select invitees in a presentation at Neuralink headquarters that lasted nearly three hours, Musk emphasized the speed at which the company is developing its device.

“The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel,” he added. “So, in theory, progress should be exponential.”

The FDA did not immediately reply to a Reuters’ request for comment.

The first two human applications targeted by the Neuralink device will be in restoring vision and enabling movement of muscles in people who cannot do so, Musk said. “Even if someone has never had vision, ever, like they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision,” he said.

The event was originally planned for Oct. 31 but Musk postponed it just days before without giving a reason.

Neuralink’s last public presentation, more than a year ago, involved a monkey with a brain chip that played a computer game by thinking alone. read more

Musk, who also runs electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla (TSLA.O), rocket firm SpaceX, and social media platform Twitter, is known for lofty goals such as colonizing Mars and saving humanity. His ambitions for Neuralink, which he launched in 2016, are of the same grand scale.

He wants to develop a chip that would allow the brain to control complex electronic devices and eventually allow people with paralysis to regain motor function and treat brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s. He also talks of melding the brain with artificial intelligence.

Neuralink, however, is running behind schedule. Musk said in a 2019 presentation he was aiming to receive regulatory approval by the end of 2020. He then said at a conference in late 2021 that he hoped to start human trials this year.

Neuralink has repeatedly missed internal deadlines to gain FDA approval to start human trials, current and former employees have said. Musk approached competitor Synchron earlier this year about a potential investment after he expressed frustration to Neuralink employees about their slow progress, Reuters reported in August.

Synchron crossed a major milestone in July by implanting its device in a patient in the United States for the first time. It received U.S. regulatory clearance for human trials in 2021 and has completed studies in four people in Australia.