Bloomberg If a green ride-sharing service were to flourish anywhere it would be in Munich, where you can rent no-emission cars on just about any city-centre street. And yet Linde AG is about to shut its two-year experiment with hydrogen. It’s another setback for fuel cell-powered cars against those that run on batteries. But the dirty little secret about clean …
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Despite Uber crash Florida trying to lure self-driving cars
Bloomberg Florida has been trying to lure self-driving cars to the state for testing on public roads, shaping laws that are much more lax than places like California and New York. The fatal accident in Arizona, another state that’s opted for a laissez faire approach to unproven robo-cars, appears unlikely to change the state’s approach. Jeff Brandes, the Florida state …
Read More »Saudi expects oil producers to extend output curbs into 2019
WASHINGTON / Reuters OPEC members will need to continue coordinating with Russia and other non-OPEC oil-producing countries on supply curbs in 2019 to reduce global oil inventories to desired levels, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said. OPEC and non-OPEC countries struck a production supply agreement in January 2017 to remove 1.8 million barrels per day from global markets and …
Read More »Asian LNG prices slide on sluggish demand, weather and N-boost
LONDON / Reuters Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices fell for a third week as above-average temperatures softened demand across North Asia and top consumer Japan resumed output from a long-shut nuclear reactor. Spot prices for May delivery slipped to about $7.10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), 60 cents below last week’s levels, said several trade sources surveyed …
Read More »Iraq’s southern oil exports fall for third month in March
LONDON / Reuters Oil exports from southern Iraq have fallen by 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) this month, according to shipping data and an industry source, suggesting OPEC’s second-largest producer is heading for a third month of lower shipments. Southern Iraqi exports in the first 21 days of March averaged about 3.36 million bpd, compared to 3.43 million bpd in …
Read More »ECB acts to ensure glitch-free journey to smooth QE end
Bloomberg The European Central Bank is making sure its bond-buying program doesn’t run into any problems in Germany in the final stretch. Six months before purchases are currently set to expire, the ECB added seven German regional development agencies to the list of institutions whose debt is eligible for quantitative easing. The expansion was done at the request of the …
Read More »BofA to pay $42mn in electronic trading probe
Bloomberg Bank of America Corp.’s corporate and investment banking division agreed to pay $42 million to settle a New York state probe into a so-called masking scheme in which it misled clients about who was seeing and filling their orders and who was trading in its dark pool. Bank of America Merrill Lynch for years, starting in 2008, had trading …
Read More »JPMorgan faces backlash over oil sands funding
Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. considers itself a leader among banks fighting climate change. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon lauded the 2015 global Paris accord, and the bank has committed to buying and financing clean energy, as well as reducing its coal-industry work. Yet the bank is the top US lender and financier to oil-sands producers and pipeline companies, according …
Read More »BOJ gets halfway to inflation target as yen clouds outlook
Bloomberg Japan’s key inflation gauge ticked up in February, putting the Bank of Japan halfway to its goal of 2 percent. Yet a strengthening yen and the threat of a global trade war underscore the central bank’s vulnerability to global markets and events. Despite the progress made, inflation remains far from the BOJ’s target, while the yen’s 7 percent gain …
Read More »Kenya top bank vows ‘no trade-offs’ in rate spat
Bloomberg Kenya’s biggest bank by market value is not giving up an inch as lenders go head-to-head with the government over what they can charge customers. The introduction of interest-rate caps in late 2016 has caused lending to grind to a near halt, spurring the International Monetary Fund to warn that growth in East Africa’s largest economy could suffer if …
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