Amman / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and King Abdullah II of Jordan, on Tuesday attended the signing of a $100 million agreement to finance micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Hashemite Kingdom. The agreement, signed at Al Husseiniya Palace …

DUBAI WAM The Sawab Centre, a bilateral Emirati-American initiative to counter online extremist propaganda and promote positive alternatives, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) announced a new cooperative agreement to mutually enrich each organisation’s capabilities and to share information and best practices. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) forma-lises the mutual interaction and strengthens existing relationship between Sawab Centre and …

Bloomberg The Trump administration is considering tighter curbs on technology exports, a step that Deutsche Bank AG says would have a “profound and long lasting adverse impact” on relations between the US and China. A request for public comment, published on the US government’s Federal Register, asks if a list of new technologies that have national security applications — from …

Bloomberg Amid the worst crude-price environment in its history, the Canadian oil industry is being ham- strung by internal divisions that are making it harder to rally around potential solutions. That draws a stark contrast to the US, where a less divided industry wields more clout. Most notable is the split between Canada’s pure producers, who are being devastated by …

Bloomberg Natural gas took a breather after its biggest gain in eight years as forecasts for lingering US cold spurred concern supplies may not be enough to meet winter demand. Gas for December delivery eased 3.1 percent in Asia after surging 18 percent to settle at $4.837 per million British thermal units, the highest since the “polar vortex” of early …

Bloomberg Confidence among US homebuilders plummeted by the most since 2014 as the highest borrowing costs in eight years restrain demand, adding to signs of a cooling housing market that will weigh on the Federal Reserve’s debate over how far to raise interest rates. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index dropped eight points in November to …

Bloomberg London’s stock of completed but unsold homes has surged by almost half this year as Brexit uncertainty and affordability issues dog the housing market. The number in the capital jumped to 2,374 units as of September 30, the most on record and up from 1,595 at the end of 2017, according to data compiled by Molior London. The borough …

Bloomberg Stocks fell from London to Shanghai and US equity futures signaled the global rout led by technology shares would deepen on Tuesday, adding pessimism to markets already anxious over trade. Treasuries advanced and the dollar edged higher. Contracts on all major US equity indexes pointed to declines at the open, with megacap tech shares leading the drop. The Stoxx …

Bloomberg The slide in cryptocurrencies accelerated this week, with Bitcoin piercing the $5,000 mark for the first time since October 2017, amid speculation that increased regulatory scrutiny will prompt issuers of initial coin offerings to liquidate holdings. Bitcoin declined as much as 14 percent during US trading hours, falling just below $4,700 before bouncing back slightly. The largest digital currency …

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA settled its longstanding sanctions violations case with US authorities, entering a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors and paying $1.34 billion to regulators in New York and Washington. As part of the settlement, France’s third-largest bank acknowledged violations of US sanctions laws against Cuba, Iran and Sudan starting as far back as 2003 and extending to …