RIYADH / Reuters Russia is seeking to finalise multi-million-dollar investment deals with Saudi Arabia in the next three months including partnerships with state oil giant Aramco, Russia’s top state investment officer said on Wednesday. Russian banks and a Russian-Chinese investment fund are also keen to take part in Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO), the head of the Russian Direct Investment ...

LONDON / Reuters As OPEC watches a near 15 percent drop in the oil price in three weeks, important indicators in the physical crude market are flashing signals that the decline might be far from over. The warnings come not from the heavily traded futures market, but from less transparent trading activity in crude oil and products markets, where key ...

ZURICH / Reuters Clariant Chief Executive Hariolf Kottmann told investors he would update them on the Swiss speciality chemicals maker’s tie-up with new shareholder Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) by July as he seeks a recovery from a turbulent 2017. Full-year net profit in 2017 rose 9.5 percent, short of analyst estimates, as the group was hit by one-time costs ...

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia will restrain its oil exports in March despite lower domestic need for crude as OPEC’s leader is pushing to eliminate fully the global oil glut and combat worries about a new cycle of oil price weakness. The kingdom will keep its crude exports below 7 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, despite a maintenance ...

Bloomberg The US is pushing to get Pakistan placed on an international terror-financing watchlist a month after President Donald Trump suspended about $2 billion in military aid to the nuclear-armed nation. The US, along with the UK, have reported to the Financial Action Task Force that Pakistan hasn’t complied with terrorism regulations, Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, a junior Pakistani minister ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson kicks off Prime Minister Theresa May’s “Road Map to Brexit” with an appeal to supporters of European Union membership to embrace the UK’s future outside the bloc—though extracts released late last night suggest his speech won’t be as conciliatory as billed. The foreign secretary, a divisive figure who toured the country in a red bus during the ...

Bloomberg South Korea must stay in line with US and Japanese plans to keep North Korea “under siege,” the chairman of Japan’s lower house committee on foreign affairs said, referring to the policy of maintaining maximum pressure on Kim Jong Un’s regime. Just days after Kim’s smiling sister invited South Korean President Moon Jae-in to a summit with her brother ...

Bloomberg Kenyan Attorney General Githu Muigai resigned after a six-and-a-half year tenure marked by missteps including changing the country’s electoral law before a disputed presidential vote. President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated Appeals Court President Paul Kihara Kariuki as Muigai’s replacement, according to a statement on his Twitter account. Kenyatta also moved Solicitor General Njee Muturi into the presidency as deputy chief ...

Bloomberg The noose tightened on South African President Jacob Zuma as the police went after key allies while leaders of the ruling African National Congress vowed to force him from office. Police raided the Johannesburg home of the Gupta family, who are in business with Zuma’s son, Duduzane, early Wednesday as the nation awaited the president’s next move in his ...

Bloomberg US stocks advanced while the dollar fell and Treasuries rose as financial markets looked ahead to Wednesday’s inflation report. The S&P 500 Index climbed for a third day, its longest winning streak since mid-January, amid a rally in financial shares and food retailers. Assets seen as safe havens gained as last week’s surge in volatility continued to weigh on ...