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Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees ‘downside risks’ to the global economic rebound it forecast for this year and next, and is concerned that new coronavirus variants may hinder the recovery, its chief economist said. “Most of the overall risks are to the downside,” Gita Gopinath said in a virtual speech to an International Finance Forum conference in Guangzhou …

Bloomberg Oil falls as fears that omicron variant may resist vaccines sent risk assets tumbling. Futures in New York fell as much as 4.9% as part of a broader retreat among commodities and equities as a top drugmaker reiterated warnings that the new strain could withstand existing inoculations. Brent crude also tumbled, with the price structure of the global benchmark …

Bloomberg Oil pared gains in volatile trading after rebounding from one of its biggest daily drops as traders weighed the risks to demand from the omicron variant of Covid-19 and the potential response by Opec and its allies. Futures in New York were up about 3.5% on Monday after earlier rallying as much as 7%. The World Health Organisation warned …

Bloomberg The UK’s booming property market is headed for a slowdown as a squeeze on living standards and rising interest rates sap demand, according to Nationwide Building Society. The average price of a home rises 0.7% in October, the mortgage lender said, even after the ending of a temporary tax cut imposed by the government last year. Economists had expected …

Bloomberg Oil climbed, erasing an earlier loss, as a landmark plan from consumers to tap their strategic oil reserves was less severe than markets expected. Futures in New York wiped out losses to trade above $77 a barrel after Tuesday’s statement from the White House. While the headline size of the US release is large, a significant chunk of the …

Bloomberg Saudi Tadawul Group Holding is seeking to raise as much as AED3.67 billion ($1 billion) after setting the price range for an initial public offering (IPO) at 95 riyals ($25.32) to 105 riyals per share, the company said on Sunday. The Riyadh-based bourse, on which oil giant Saudi Aramco trades, plans to sell a 30% stake, or 36 million …

Abu Dhabi / WAM GCC-based venture capital firm VentureSouq (VSQ) announced the launch of its Mena fintech fund, the region’s first sector specific fund focused on FinTech across the Middle East & North Africa (Mena) region and Pakistan. The $50 million VentureSouq fund invests in early-stage fintech and SaaS companies and focuses on key subsectors including payments infrastructure, alternative credit, …

Bloomberg Oil logged its biggest weekly drop since August as Europe’s worsening Covid-19 crisis renewed the prospect of lockdowns just as key consuming nations look to add emergency supply to the market. West Texas Intermediate for January delivery tumbled 3.2%, while the expiring December contract lost 3.7%. Europe’s Brent skidded 2.9%. The wave of infections in Europe is growing, once …

Bloomberg Global initial public offerings (IPOs) have smashed their previous record this year, propelled by a blank-check boom and companies cashing in on high valuations. With six weeks to go, about 2,850 businesses and special purpose acquisition (SPAC) companies have raised more than $600 billion in IPOs, leaving the records for both deal count and proceeds reached in 2007 in …

DUBAI / WAM The Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) and G42 have announced a partnership to explore the latest trends and opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and cloud computing to accelerate the digitisation of manufacturing processes and drive supply chain improvements. Through this partnership, GMIS and G42 will promote the adoption of disruptive technologies to solve some …