ABU DHABI / WAM The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), has projected an increase in the global demand for oil to 100.98 million barrels per day (mbpd) during 2020, an increase of 1.22 mbpd compared to the average production of 99.77 mbpd for 2019, according to the Organisation’s Monthly Oil Market Report for January. World oil production includes all …

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he’s begun talks with World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Roberto Azevedo on changing the structure of the body, which he complained has been unfair to the US. Azevedo will travel to the US for negotiations, Trump said on Wednesday at a news conference to close his visit to the World Economic Forum annual conference in …

Bloomberg Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte and Swedish private equity firm EQT AB have formed a $500 million venture that will invest in solar and wind power generators across India. The O2 Power renewable energy platform, first reported by The Economic Times in November, will draw down on the funds over several years as it finds suitable deals, Temasek and EQT …

Bloomberg US equity-index futures gained on Wednesday as China took steps to contain the spread of a deadly virus that had rattled international markets. Treasuries and the dollar were steady. Contracts on the three main American equity indexes all rose, with Netflix Inc and International Business Machines Corp climbing in the premarket as traders digested their earnings. The Stoxx Europe …

Bloomberg Southeast Asian companies seeking to list in Hong Kong may be better off staying at home as investors in the financial hub continue to avoid small-cap stocks. Initial public offerings from Southeast Asian companies in Hong Kong are generally tiny. The average deal size of such IPOs last year stood at just $15.3 million, according to data compiled by …

Bloomberg Some investors may have been taking advantage of the sell-off in Asian stocks to position for a rebound. While the iShares China Large-Cap ETF tumbled the most in two years on news that the coronavirus out of China has spread, Susquehanna Financial Group spotted buyers of bullish options. Four of the five most-traded contracts on US-listed exchange-traded fund were …

Bloomberg Some of the world’s major central banks are teaming up to assess potentially developing their own digital currencies, acknowledging that their role is being challenged by new technologies and private sector initiatives such as Facebook Inc’s Libra. A group has been formed in order to “share experience as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) …

Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) governor Mark Carney warned of mounting risks to the financial sector and the economy from climate change, and urged the US to play bigger role. “Something which was largely on the periphery of finance has come into the mainstream,” Carney told Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Bloomberg Climate Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Transition risk …

Bloomberg Malaysia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate in a surprise move on Wednesday, the first in Southeast Asia to do so this year as it seeks to support its economy amid lingering global uncertainty. Bank Negara Malaysia reduced the overnight policy rate to 2.75%, a 25 basis-point cut predicted by just two of the 26 economists surveyed by …

Bloomberg UBS Group AG Chairman Axel Weber said his top priority for the next months is working to reduce a $5 billion French tax fine that’s prompted the bank to postpone a decision on future share buybacks until the second half of the year. The Swiss lender was slapped with the fine after a Paris court found it guilty of …