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Singapore/ AFP US crude tumbled below $27 a barrel in Asia Thursday as the oversaturated market struggled to cope with high inventories in the United States and an increased output from OPEC. The decline came despite the weekly US Department of Energy report showing USA oil stocks fell about 800,000 barrels for the week ending on February 5, with traders ...

Bloomberg The world is so awash with crude, the boss of BP Plc said people will be filling their “swimming pools” with it by the end of the year. While the company’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley bemoaned this bearish outlook for oil, traders were eyeing a potentially profitable opportunity: turning supertankers into temporary floating storage facilities. Trading houses including ...

Singapore/ AFP US crude tumbled below $27 a barrel in Asia Thursday as the oversaturated market struggled to cope with high inventories in the United States and an increased output from OPEC. The decline came despite the weekly US Department of Energy report showing US oil stocks fell about 800,000 barrels for the week ending February 5, with traders seeing ...

Bloomberg Fuel producers from India to South Korea are finding that rising refined products from China are cutting the profit margins they’ve enjoyed from cheap oil to the lowest in more than a year. Worse may be coming. China’s total net exports of oil products — a measure that strips out imports — will rise 31 percent this year to ...

Bloomberg Home prices rose in 81 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas in the fourth quarter, with the pace of gains accelerating even as sales slowed from earlier in the year, the National Association of Realtors said. The median price of an existing single-family home increased from a year earlier in 145 of the 179 markets measured, the group said in ...

Manhattan / Bloomberg Dubai’s Damac Properties reported a 12 per cent fall in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, according to a company statement on the Dubai stock exchange (DFM). The developer reported a net profit of AED844m ($229.8m) for the three months to 31 December, according to calculations by Reuters, which calculated was the absence of a quarterly breakdown. This ...

Berlin / AFP German retail giant Metro said on Thursday that profits rose strongly in the first quarter, helped by strong Christmas business and gains from divestments. Metro, which runs its business year from October to September, said in a statement that bottom-line net profit rose by 36 percent to 549 million euros ($620 million) in the three months to ...

Bloomberg Spending on business aircraft fell 3.1 percent last year as a commodities downturn crimped demand for long-range jets in emerging markets. Companies and wealthy individuals spent $18.7 billion on private jets, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The report is adjusted because Bombardier Inc. hasn’t reported fourth-quarter results yet. Sales of large-cabin planes, such as Bombardier’s Global 5000, ...

AUSTIN/ AP Whole Foods says its sales at established locations slipped in its fiscal first quarter and forecast the figure to be flat to down 2 percent for the year, as it works to keep prices down and fend off rivals. The Austin, Texas company noted that its comparable store sales have been “particularly difficult to predict” given the competitive ...

DETROIT / AP Tesla Motors posted its 11th straight quarterly loss, and its results badly missed Wall Street’s forecasts. But the electric car maker’s shares soared anyway on news that its lower-priced Model 3 sedan is on schedule to be released next year. Tesla said it will unveil the much-anticipated $35,000 car on March 31 and expects to start production ...