Bloomberg Crude settled above $50 a barrel as investors assessed the likelihood of a deal to reduce supply after Russia’s energy minister said the country’s oil output may rise to a record next year. December futures rose 0.4 percent in New York after swinging between gains and losses during intraday trading. Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said production could …

  Reuters Western insurers are slowly reaching deals with Iran as they seek to re-enter a multi-billion dollar market although the pace of business is hampered by banking restrictions ten months on from the lifting of international sanctions. Shut out of international financial markets for years, Iran is still trying to reap the benefits of last year’s nuclear deal with …

  Bloomberg Australia just found out the price of blocking foreign investment. The New South Wales state government announced it had sold a 50.4 percent stake in power network Ausgrid to two local funds in a deal valuing the entire company, including debt, at about A$20.8 billion ($16 billion). Two months earlier, the federal government barred New South Wales from …