News

Bloomberg It’s getting tougher to bet on oil in the age of Trump trade tweets and Chinese retaliation, with hedge funds getting it wrong for a seventh time in nine weeks. This time around, short-sellers made their biggest retreat in a year in week ended August 20, slashing by 25% their wagers that West Texas Intermediate crude would decline, data ...

Bloomberg A Nigerian high court ordered the government to renew Shell Petroleum Development Co.’s operating license for the Oil Mineral Lease 11 field, which was withdrawn earlier this year, Lagos-based Punch newspaper reported. The Federal High Court in Abuja, ordered the license be renewed for maximum 20 years, and not 30 years the oil major was seeking, the newspaper reported. ...

Bloomberg India rolled back an additional levy on foreign funds and announced a raft of measures to boost economic growth from a five-year low. The enhanced surcharge on long and short-term capital gains has been withdrawn, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in New Delhi. She also announced an immediate infusion of 700 billion rupees ($9.8 billion) set aside in the ...

Bloomberg Taiwan registered stronger industrial production than even the most bullish economist’s forecast as companies benefited from increased US orders and burgeoning demand for 5G smartphones. Factory output rose 3% in July, compared with estimates for a 0.6% contraction, according to data released by Taiwan’s economics ministry. The ministry said output represented a record high for the month of July. ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s government extended the suspension of mobile-data services in Papua and West Papua provinces after riots broke out in the region, the country’s cabinet secretariat said, citing the Communications and Information Ministry. The ministry cited a high volume of hoaxes, false information, racial and provocative messages being distributed in the area as the reason for the suspension. The ministry ...

Bloomberg Thai officials glimpse a silver lining in the US-China trade war as companies such as Sony Corp. move production to Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. At least 10 firms are in the process of relocating some production to Thailand from China, according to the National Economic & Social Development Council. More than a dozen others could potentially choose Thailand, it ...

Bloomberg The US and Japan agreed on a broad framework for a trade deal that will keep US tariffs on Japanese automobiles in place for now, while removing barriers to beef exports to Japan, Japanese media reported. Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative, and Japan Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi reached an agreement in Washington, the Nikkei and Kyodo News reported, ...

Bloomberg The US is politicising the issue of illicit Chinese exports of fentanyl and using it as a weapon against China, said country’s narcotics regulator. Liu Yuejin, deputy head of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission, rebutted accusations from the US that China is not doing enough to curb the flow of fentanyl beyond its borders. Some American politicians “are up-ending ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump escalated the trade war with China and moved further away from a deal to resolve frictions, announcing a wave of higher tariffs even as he prepared to set off for a gathering of world leaders. In an announcement, tweeted after major indices on Wall Street sank, Trump said existing 25% tariffs on some $250 billion in ...

Bloomberg Allianz SE agreed to pay 667 million euros ($738 million) for the general-insurance assets of SulAmerica, a deal that will make the German firm Brazil’s second-largest provider of motor insurance. Europe’s largest insurer will combine the new assets with its existing Brazilian subsidiary to create a business with 1.5 billion euros of gross written premiums, according to a company ...