French President Emmanuel Macron has doubled down on the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine, a day before a key summit with Germany, which is staunchly opposed to the idea.

“We cannot exclude options,” Macron said in a joint interview with TF1 and France 2 TV on Thursday, when asked to revisit controversial comments made in late February. At the time, the French leader refused to rule out the prospective deployment of Western troops into Ukrainian territory — resulting in scorn from Russia and a backlash from Macron’s NATO allies.

“What we are doing is giving ourselves red lines,” the French premier continued on Thursday, in comments translated by CNBC, noting that the international community has placed “too many limits in our vocabulary” regarding the war.

“If we decide today to be weak, if, in the face of someone who has no limits, who has crossed all the limits we have given him, if we naively tell him: ‘I will not go farther than this or that.’ In that moment we don’t decide peace, we decide defeat.”

The French leader declined to specify how he envisages a potential troop deployment into Ukraine, stressing instead that “the security of Europe and the security of the French people is at stake here.”

In response to the comments, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “France is already involved in the conflict in Ukraine and is not averse to increasing its involvement,” according to Google-translated remarks reported by Russian state news agency Tass.

The latest statements by Macron once again risk pitting him against NATO allies, who distanced themselves from the possibility of their own national military deployment in Ukraine in February.

The alliance members face separate pressure to increase their defense spending to a previously agreed target of 2% of their national GDP, with two-thirds of members set to meet this objective this year, according to the latest projections.

“We have the capacity to give Ukraine what it needs. Now we need to show the political will to do so,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed during a press briefing.

NATO member contributions have so far been used to supply ammunition and military equipment and maintenance to Ukraine, rather than sending troops into Ukrainian territory — a move that would position the alliance closer to war with Russia. Foreign volunteers have assisted both Russia and Ukraine in the war so far, but not as part of any formal military deployment.

Macron on Friday is meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin for talks that many hope could silence simmering tensions over Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will also join them, in a rare meeting of the Weimar Triangle — a regional coalition between the three countries, born in 1991.

Berlin has fought to shrug off its image as a slow responder to the conflict in Ukraine, after stalling approval to send Kyiv its Leopard-2 tanks. It now faces similar calls to deliver its Taurus missiles, which Scholz says would require the involvement of German soldiers to operate.

In February, Scholz joined the chorus of NATO leaders starkly opposing Macron’s position of potentially sending troops into Ukraine, insisting on social media: “It is clear: there will be no ground troops from European countries or NATO. That applies.”

Tusk, whose country has staunchly backed Ukraine in the war, comes fresh from a White House engagement earlier this week, during which he, Polish President Andrezj Duda and U.S. President Joe Biden committed “continued support of Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s war of aggression,” according to a readout.

“True solidarity with Ukraine? Less words, more ammunition,” Tusk said on social media on Friday.

Nvidia shares jumped more than 14% in premarket trade on Thursday after the chip giant posted bumper earnings that beat Wall Street estimates.

The U.S. tech giant posted revenue of $22.10 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, a rise of 265% year-on-year, while net income surged by 769%, as the company continues to see a boost from excitement over artificial intelligence.

Nvidia chips are used to train the huge AI models such as those developed by Microsoft and Meta.

Nvidia sees no signs of slowing. The company forecast its revenue in the current quarter will hit $24 billion, way ahead of estimates.

“Fundamentally, the conditions are excellent for continued growth” in 2025 and beyond, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told analysts on Wednesday, adding to the bullish sentiment around the stock.

Nvidia’s Data Center business, which includes the company’s H100 graphics cards that are used for AI training, posted sales of $18.4 billion in the fourth quarter, representing 409% year-on-year growth.

The positive outlook from Nvidia prompted a round of broker upgrades on Thursday. JPMorgan raised its price target on Nvidia’s stock from $650 to $850, while Bank of America Global Research hiked its target from $800 to $925.

Nvidia’s stock closed at $674.72 on Thursday. Shares were under pressure ahead of the earnings report as traders took profit and investors were concerned that Nvidia might not be able to hit lofty expectations.

But its market-beating numbers dispelled those fears and also pulled other global chip stocks higher.

MUNICH, Germany — NATO members on Saturday weighed the U.S.’ possible withdrawal from the military alliance if Donald Trump returns to the White House, with Hillary Clinton saying he would waste no time in quitting if re-elected.

Clinton urged delegates at the Munich Security Conference to take her one-time presidential rival’s tough talk “literally and seriously” as anxiety mounts over the future of the U.S.-led pact.

“He will pull us out of NATO,” Clinton told attendees during a lunchtime session.

Trump stoked fresh concerns over the U.S.’ commitment to NATO last weekend when he said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any member that doesn’t meet its spending targets. He has long criticized the alliance’s failure to ensure members make good on their obligation to contribute 2% of gross domestic product to defense.

Amid such rhetoric, the U.S. Congress passed a bill in December aimed at preventing any U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from the alliance without congressional approval.

U.S. Republican Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on Saturday dismissed talk of the U.S. quitting NATO, saying: “We have answered that question.”

“It would take a two-thirds vote in the United States Senate to get out — that is never going to happen,” he told CNBC in Munich.

Clinton said, however, that Trump could actually just refuse to fund the alliance. “The U.S. will be there in name only,” she said.

Concerns over the U.S. and Europe’s continued military coordination have dominated discussions at this year’s annual defense summit in Germany, as the specter of a second Trump presidency looms large and a contentious aid package for Ukraine hangs in the balance in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier Saturday referenced constant “moaning and whining” at the event about the future of NATO under Trump.

“Stop moaning and whining and nagging about Trump,” he said.

He was one of many European voices, including that of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said that Europe needed to become self-sufficient in the face of a more uncertain future with its closest diplomatic ally.

“No matter what happens in the U.S. … we have to be able to protect ourselves,” Frederiksen said.

Indeed, Germany’s defense minister said that his country’s commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense should be just the start, noting that the threshold could rise to 3.5% if necessary.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg struck a more sanguine tone on transatlantic coordination, however, saying that believes the U.S. will remain “a staunch and committed NATO ally” whatever happens in the upcoming election.

“I expect that regardless of the outcome of the U.S. elections in November, the U.S. will remain a staunch and committed NATO ally,” he told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro. “It is in the security interests of the United States to have a strong NATO.”

Stoltenberg acknowledged Trump’s frustration with member spending, but said “that is now changing.” On Wednesday, NATO announced that 18 of the alliance’s 31 members will meet the 2% spending target this year.

NATO member countries first committed to minimum spending targets in 2006, but by 2014 only three had met the threshold.

The alliance will mark its 75th anniversary this year at an annual summit to be held in Washington in July. Senator Risch said he would like to see all members committing to meeting their target by that point.

“Talk about it happening years in the future isn’t now, and we’re always interested in now,” he said. “That’s helpful to the relationship: everybody keeping the commitments that they made.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he preferred Joe Biden as the next U.S. president over Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who fell under intense scrutiny for his relationship with the Kremlin during his presidency.

“[Biden] is more experienced and more predictable. He is an ‘old school’ politician. But we will work with any US leader, elected by the people of America,” Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin late Wednesday, according to Russian state-controlled news outlet Tass.

The Trump and Biden presidential campaigns did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Putin’s comments followed a week of international controversy over Trump’s recent NATO remarks and mounting tensions between U.S. Democrats and Republicans over a $95 billion aid package that includes military aid to Ukraine.

The Kremlin head of state will stand in his own election on 15-17 March, but is widely expected to clinch another presidential mandate after leading Russia as prime minister or head of state since 1999.

In the same interview, Putin also appeared to dismiss recently mediatized concerns over Biden’s mental acuity after Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur said the White House leader “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” and exhibited poor memory during a relevant interview. Biden has disputed the claims.

Referencing their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2021, Putin said he had noticed no signs of incapacity from Biden. “Yes, he was peeking at his notes from time to time, but, frankly speaking, I was peeking at mine as well,” Putin said, adding that there were “reports of [Biden] banging his head on the helicopter while leaving it, but who didn’t?”

Despite these apparently favorable comments, Putin stressed ongoing disagreement with Biden’s politics, saying “the incumbent administration’s approach is most harmful and erroneous.”

Biden assumed office roughly one year before Moscow’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His administration has staunchly backed Kyiv with military and financial aid, and Biden has led the White house through a period of deteriorating relations with the Kremlin.

Putin has in turn distanced Moscow from Western countries — which have overwhelmingly sanctioned Russia and its officials — and sought fresh ties with various emerging markets, especially China and Iran.

Putin’s apparent stance of distancing himself from Trump is notable given historical questions over the strength of the pair’s relationship. Trump was probed during a nearly two-year special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the election that he won. The former president repeatedly denied claims that he had fallen under the Kremlin’s influence.

During a campaign rally in South Carolina late last week, Trump signaled that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to a country member of the NATO military coalition that did not meet its defense spending commitments — triggering widespread international outrage and criticism from NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that his comments are undermining the security of all NATO allies.

Biden characterized Trump’s comments as “dumb,” “shameful,” “dangerous” and “un-American,” suggesting a close connection between the former U.S. president and the Russian head of state, and introducing distance between himself and Putin. 

“Can you imagine? A former president of the U.S. saying that? The whole world heard it. The worst thing is he means it. No other president in our history has ever bowed down to a Russian dictator. And let me say this as clearly as I can: I never will,” Biden said.

The broader Republican party’s support of Ukraine faces an imminent test after a $95 billion bill passed by 70-29 in the Democrat-led U.S. Senate earlier this week. The aid package — which includes assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan — must win support from the Republican-helmed House of Representatives before becoming law.

A.P. Moller-Maersk, the second-largest global ocean carrier, is advising customers to prepare for a Red Sea crisis that could stretch well into the second half of this year.

“Unfortunately, we don’t see any change in the Red Sea happening anytime soon,” Charles van der Steene, regional president for Maersk North America, tells CNBC. “We’re advising them the longer transit routes could last through Q2 and potentially Q3. Customers will need to make sure they have the longer overall transit time built into their supply chain.”

On January 5, Maersk announced that it was suspending voyages through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for the “foreseeable future” after the attack on the Maersk Hangzhou. After attacks on two U.S.-flagged Maersk vessels on January 24, the Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake, Maersk Line, Limited — a U.S. subsidiary of Maersk, which operates U.S.-flagged vessels independently — announced it would no longer traverse the Red Sea.

The global shipping and logistics company’s cautious view of the Red Sea safety conditions comes despite a U.S.-led multinational military operation in the region, Operation Prosperity Guardian. According to U.S. defense data, Houthi rebels have either attacked or threatened commercial vessels at least 46 times since November. Despite multiple strikes by the U.S. and allies against rebel targets, Houthis have warned that their attacks “will continue until the aggression against Gaza stops.”

The longer transits around the Cape of Good Hope are delaying the arrival of the empty vessels going back to Asia to pick up more U.S. imports. The delays are impacting the consistency of trade which can impact the supply chain. Van der Steene said he is urging U.S. companies to remain vigilant in their assessment of the Red Sea situation and be nimble in their supply chain logistics strategies.

Maersk was the largest ocean carrier for U.S. exports in 2023, based on customs data. Maersk Line, Limited’s U.S.-flagged vessels are enrolled in the Maritime Security Program and VISA (Voluntary Intermodal Sealift) with the U.S. government. It has the largest number of U.S. flagged vessels serving the country, in addition to its foreign-flagged fleet which transports ocean freight for U.S. companies.

“Our advice to our customers is specifically about building upon the uncertainty by being agile,” said van der Steene. “Customers need to have the ability to enter the North American market from different endpoints. Be it the West Coast, Gulf, or the East Coast. Our preparation of services very much depends on one-to-one work with our customers to identify what is their best alternative.”

Data from maritime advisory firm Sea-Intelligence shows that the average delay for late vessel arrivals has “deteriorated,” and as a result, vessel capacity has diminished, with impacts for U.S. East Coast-bound ocean freight from Asia going around the Horn of Cape Hope.

To keep the flow of trade moving, van der Steene told CNBC, Maersk has added about 6 percent of extra vessel capacity to its schedule, adding to operational costs. During its recent earnings call, Maersk executives flagged “high uncertainty” in its 2024 earnings outlook, citing the Red Sea disruptions and an oversupply of shipping vessels.

“U.S. businesses are concerned about delivery timing,” said van der Steene. “Merchant decisions are based on how reliable and how consistent their supply chain will be for the next three, six, 12, 24 months.”

In addition to delivery, van der Steen said shippers need to quantify the cost for their supply chain to the actual costs for their supply chain.

“Many of our customers factor a cost per unit cost for their supply chain into their budgeting, which basically is what they need to make their results work,” he said. “If that fundamentally shifts and changes, it could have a pretty significant effect on their overall costs.”

Ocean freight prices have jumped as a result of the longer voyage, costs not planned in shippers’ budgets, but recent data has suggested that inflation related to the Red Sea may be peaking already. Maersk officials said during its recent earnings call that the situation will not compare to the Covid supply chain inflation period due to the current overcapacity of vessels resulting from a post-Covid freight industry recession.

U.S. companies, van der Steene says, are faced with three supply chain headwinds: Red Sea diversions, East Coast port labor negotiations, and the Panama Canal drought. Shippers are looking for alternatives to cut both the time and rising cost of transit.

Ports in Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, and Los Angeles and Long Beach will be ports receiving some East Coast bound freight, van der Steene said. He described Mexico as a “significant” opportunity due to the expansion of nearshoring of products once manufactured in China. Recent trade data from the U.S. government showed that for the first time in decades, Mexico surpassed China as the nation’s largest trade partner.

For East Coast trade originating from the Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) region and going through the Panama Canal, Maersk recently announced it was expediting freight flow by moving those containers via rail instead of waiting to traverse the canal, which has drought restrictions reducing the number of vessels allowed for daily transit.

“The concern of Panama hasn’t gone away,” said van der Steene. “It has stabilized in the sense that people know what to expect, but we don’t know if this might potentially be recurring on an ongoing basis in the future. As a result, we’re actively looking to potentially have a better West Coast approach that would somehow mitigate the risk of the throughput being reduced on an ongoing basis.”

Former U.S. head of state and presidential candidate Donald Trump stoked the ire of U.S. lawmakers and international leaders, after remarking he would not protect NATO countries from Russian attacks if they lag on their membership payments.

Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump said that, as president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to a member country that didn’t meet its defense spending guidelines.

Trump, who has a long history of criticizing the transatlantic military alliance, recounted a time when an unspecified president of a NATO member challenged him on his threat not to defend them from a potential Russian invasion if they failed to meet NATO’s target of spending at least 2% of their budget on the military.

“You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent … No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills,” Trump said.

The U.S. has historically had the largest number of military personnel out of all NATO countries, counting 1.35 million troops in 2023, according to Statista.

Trump has been accused of entertaining close ties with Russia during his first presidential mandate. The Kremlin declined to address Trump’s remarks.

“I am still [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s press secretary, but not Trump’s,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.

Top Western officials, as well as both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, sharply criticized Trump’s comments. U.S. President Joe Biden, who has also declared intentions to run for a second presidential mandate, described Trump’s remarks as “appalling and dangerous.”

“Sadly, they are also predictable coming from a man who is promising to rule as a dictator like the ones he praises on day one if he returns to the oval office,” Biden said Sunday in a statement.

Trump is vying to clinch Republican backing for his presidential bid at the polls later this year, facing off former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

In an interview with CBS, Haley said Sunday that “the last thing we ever want to do is side with Russia.”

She added that the NATO alliance “allows us to prevent war.”

Former Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie also criticized Trump’s comments, saying in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that “this is why I’ve been saying for a long time that he’s unfit to be president of the United States.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO stands “ready and able” to defend all allies and any attack would be met with a “united and forceful” response.

“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk,” Stoltenberg said in a statement.

“I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election the US will remain a strong and committed NATO Ally,” he added.

NATO’s 31 members, which include the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Turkey and the U.K., agreed in July last year to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense, firming up a previous goal.

A report released by NATO last year showed only 11 of the then-30 member alliance were spending 2% of GDP or more on defense. The defense spending target is not a requirement and many countries have sought to ramp up their military spending since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

NATO’s so-called Article 5 mutual defense clause means that an attack against one NATO member is considered an attack against all allies.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that NATO cannot be an “a la carte” military alliance dependent on the impulses of the U.S. political leadership.

“NATO cannot be an ‘a la carte’ military alliance … depending on the humor of the president of the U.S.,” Borrell said when asked to respond to Trump’s comments, Reuters reported.

Germany’s Foreign Office on Sunday posted “One for all and all for one” on its English language X social media account, supported by the hashtag “#StrongerTogether.”

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Sunday via X that NATO’s motto of “‘one for all, all for one’ is a concrete commitment.”

“Undermining the credibility of allied countries means weakening the entire North Atlantic Treaty Organization. No election campaign is an excuse for playing with the security of the Alliance,” he added.

DETROIT — General Motors beat Wall Street’s top- and bottom-line expectations for the fourth quarter, while forecasting another strong year despite potential economic and sales head winds.

The Detroit automaker’s 2024 guidance calls for net income attributable to stockholders of $9.8 billion to $11.2 billion, or $8.50 to $9.50 earnings per share; adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $12 billion to $14 billion, or $8.50 to $9.50 adjusted EPS; and adjusted automotive free cash flow between $8 billion and $10 billion.

The earnings guidance is largely better than GM’s 2023 results and in line or higher than many Wall Street analysts’ expectations of flat results compared with 2023.

Here’s how the company performed in the fourth quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

Adjusted earnings per share: $1.24 versus $1.16, estimatedRevenue: $42.98 billion versus $38.67 billion, estimated

For the fourth quarter, GM reported net income for stockholders of $2.1 billion, or $1.59 per share, compared with $2 billion, or $1.39 per share a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, GM earned $1.24 per share, topping Wall Street expectations.

Revenue was largely flat year over year, at $42.98 billion compared with $43.11 billion for the final three months of 2022.

GM’s full-year 2023 revenue was about up 10% compared with the prior year, at $171.84 billion, with net income attributable to stockholders of $10.13 billion and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $12.36 billion. That compares with 2022 revenue of $156.74 billion, net income attributable to stockholders of $9.93 billion and adjusted EBIT of $14.47 billion.

“As we begin 2024, I believe GM is well positioned for another year of strong financial performance,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson told media during a call to discuss the results.

GM’s 2023 earnings included several special charges, including $1.1 billion in North American strike costs and $792 million charge for new commercial agreements between GM and LG Electronics and LG Energy Solution.

Shares of GM are down less than 2% this year after rising about 7% last year, lifted by an accelerated $10 billion share repurchase program that was announced in late November.

GM’s North American adjusted earnings were off 45% during the fourth quarter from a year earlier to $2.01 billion. Its international operations declined by 1.1% to $269 million.

China – GM’s second-largest market – continued to struggle, with a 34% decline in equity income for the year to $446 million, including a 54% drop during the fourth quarter.

Jacobson said GM expects its China operations this year to be roughly flat from last, including an anticipated loss in the first quarter.

“The team is doing a good job of managing through a challenging situation but we’re going to have a tough first quarter,” he said.

For the year, GM’s North American operations were off 5.3% to $12.31 billion, while international operations were up 5.9% to $1.21 billion.

GM expects to spend roughly $1 billion less this year on its majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. In 2023 it spent $2.7 billion on the embattled business unit, excluding special items such as severance packages for layoffs.

Cruise remains under several state and federal investigations following an Oct. 2 accident involving a pedestrian in San Francisco.

GM CEO Mary Barra, who chairs Cruise’s board, said officials have “already begun to implement significant changes” at Cruise following the findings of internal, third-party probes into the incident and operations.

Cruise and GM last week released findings of internal investigations that outlined cultural issues, regulatory ineptitude and poor leadership at the company, but found that officials did not intentionally deceive or mislead regulators.

The companies also disclosed Cruise remains under investigation by several entities, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“At Cruise, we are committed to earning back the trust of regulators and the public through our commitments and our actions,” Barra said in a letter to shareholders Tuesday.

Both Barra and Jacobson acknowledged that the adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. has been slower than originally expected but said the company remains committed to expanding its EV lineup and sales in 2024.

“Consensus is growing that the U.S. economy, the job market and auto sales will continue to be resilient, and at GM, we expect healthy industry sales of about 16 million units with the mix of EVs continuing to grow,” Barra said.

The automaker last year pulled its near-term sales guidance for EVs but maintained plans to add 1 million units worth of EV production capacity in North America and achieve a mid-single-digit EBIT EV margin, both by 2025.

GM’s EV sales totaled 75,883 units, or 2.9% of the company’s overall sales, last year. A vast majority of those were sales of its now discontinued Chevrolet Bolt models.

The company has experienced problems in ramping up production of its newer “Ultium” EVs, including a major issue with battery module assembly.

GM has said it plans to keep its North American plants “flexible” to produce EVs and traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines, based on consumer demand.

This is breaking news. Please check back for additional updates.

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

The global economy does not need a “collapse” in order to bring inflation back to target and return to sustainable growth, according to Steven Wieting, chief investment strategist and chief economist at Citi Global Wealth.

Major economies have proven surprisingly resilient to sharp interest rate increases from central banks over the last two years. This has been particularly evident in the U.S., with recession thus far avoided and the labor market remaining robust.

Talk has now turned to rate cuts as inflation remains on a downward trajectory toward central banks’ targets, while growth has slowed.

Wieting told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday that he is optimistic the global economy does not need an “economic collapse” to rein in inflation.

“We had one massive shock — one pandemic, one collapse. We didn’t need two recessions to ultimately cure our inflation problem,” he said.

“It’s holding down parts of our economy now — manufacturing and trade declines are happening around the world — but these are likely to bottom within the year.”

U.S. headline inflation came in at an annual 3.4% year-on-year in December, remaining above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target but down considerably from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

Investors will be closely watching Friday’s personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation figure, the Fed’s preferred metric, for further clues as to when the central bank will begin cutting rates.

Meanwhile, a preliminary estimate of fourth-quarter GDP is scheduled for Thursday, with the economy expected to have grown by 1.7%, its lowest rate since the 0.6% decline in the second quarter of 2022.

“This period of slower global growth and slowing employment growth in the United States we think can pass and lead to a healthier growth period if we take a look particularly at the next year and beyond, and that’s this year’s business for investors,” Wieting said.

He highlighted that while there is excess that needs to be worked out of the economy, this was not the result of a “true overheating” or prolonged “boom,” but instead of excess government fiscal stimulus related to the pandemic recovery that wasn’t going to be repeated.

“If you take a look at money supply in the United States, it declined 4% over the past year. Take a look at the 1970s, it was almost 10% growth for the entire decade, important prices surging 14% every single year — that’s … sustained inflation,” Wieting said.

“This story with just all of this government spending coming and going — upheaval in supply and demand, consumer spending going up or down 30% between goods and services, during the pandemic period — that’s not the environment we’re in any longer.”

Microsoft said in a Friday regulatory filing that a Russian intelligence group accessed some of the software maker’s top executives’ email accounts. Nobelium, the same group that breached government supplier SolarWinds in 2020, carried out the attack, which Microsoft detected last week, according to the company.

It isn’t the first time Russian hackers have gained entry into Microsoft’s systems. State-sponsored attacks that can result in the dissemination of sensitive data becomes a greater risk during periods of armed conflict, and Russia’s war against Ukraine has been going on for almost two years now. On Thursday, Russia said Ukrainian forces conducted drone strikes in multiple Russian locations.

Microsoft’s announcement comes after new U.S. requirements for disclosing cybersecurity incidents went into effect. A Microsoft spokesperson said that while the company does not believe the attack had a material effect, it still wanted to honor the spirit of the rules.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is “closely coordinating with Microsoft to gain additional insights into this incident and understand impacts so we can help protect other potential victims,” CISA executive assistant director for cybersecurity Eric Goldstein said in a statement to CNBC. “As noted in Microsoft’s announcement, at this time we are not aware of impacts to Microsoft customer environments or products.” 

In late November, the group accessed “a legacy non-production test tenant account,” Microsoft’s Security Response Center wrote in the blog post. After gaining access, the group “then used the account’s permissions to access a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions, and exfiltrated some emails and attached documents,” the corporate unit wrote.

The company’s senior leadership team, including Chief Financial Offer Amy Hood and President Brad Smith, regularly meets with CEO Satya Nadella.

Microsoft said it has not found signs that Nobelium had accessed customer data, production systems or proprietary source code.

The U.S. government and Microsoft consider Nobelium to be part of the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR. The hacking group was responsible for one of the most prolific breaches in U.S. history when it added malicious code to updates to SolarWinds’ Orion software, which some U.S. government agencies were using. Microsoft itself was ensnared in the hack.

Nobelium, also known as APT29 or Cozy Bear, is a sophisticated hacking group that has attempted to breach the systems of U.S. allies and the Department of Defense. Microsoft also uses the name Midnight Blizzard to identify Nobelium.

It was also implicated alongside another Russian hacking group in the 2016 breach of the Democratic National Committee’s systems.

Last year, a vulnerability in Microsoft software allowed China-aligned hackers to access the email accounts of senior government officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, ahead of a critical U.S.-China meeting. The company’s “negligent cybersecurity practices” led to the attack, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote in a letter to CISA director Jen Easterly, and other federal officials.

“We are continuing our investigation and will take additional actions based on the outcomes of this investigation and will continue working with law enforcement and appropriate regulators,” the Microsoft blog post said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation told CNBC that it knows about the attack and is working with federal partners to help.

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