The main events by the morning: November 22

• The United States warns of sanctions for using the Russian equivalent of SWIFT. The US Treasury Department announced possible secondary sanctions against international financial companies that connect to the Russian «Financial Message Transmission System» (SPFS). The agency described participation in the SPFS as a «red flag» and warned that OFAC would take measures against organizations cooperating with this system.

• Bitcoin has reached another historical high of $99.25 thousand. At the same time, the volume of assets of American bitcoin ETFs exceeded $100 billion, amounting to $104 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. For comparison, the total assets of the gold ETF in the United States are estimated at $121.65 billion.

• There is a critical personnel vulnerability in Russia. The most difficult situation is in the construction industry. There are now 12 times more vacancies in this area than the average over the past 10 years. An acute shortage of personnel is also noted in logistics, the service sector and manufacturing industries.   

• Russia's gold reserve grew by 33% and exceeded $200 billion. This has become a new historical high. As you know, since October, the Ministry of Finance has been buying gold and foreign currency for 3.1 billion rubles daily, continuing to strengthen the country's financial reserves.

• Ukraine is in the most difficult situation since the beginning of the conflict. The Times writes that the reserves of Storm Shadow missiles, which could not significantly affect the course of hostilities, are almost exhausted. The newspaper also suggests that the country may face further retreat and the loss of additional territories.