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Mozambique says Exxon to approve giant LNG project

Bloomberg Mozambique’s government said Exxon Mobil Corp. will sign off on an initial investment decision for a liquefied natural gas project that could cost as much as $33 billion to build — the biggest ever in Africa. A ceremony marking the decision will take place Oct. 8 in Maputo, the capital of the southeast African nation, the Ministry of Mineral ...

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‘Permian’ fails to deliver export boost

Bloomberg Newly commissioned Permian Basin crude pipelines have yet to boost US crude exports, as the ongoing US-China trade war weighs on demand from Asia. The US Census Bureau said exports averaged 2.73 million barrels a day in August, up just 40,000 barrels from a month before. That’s despite the start of two widely anticipated crude pipelines from West Texas ...

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US energy chief to leave Trump administration by year’s end

Bloomberg Energy Secretary Rick Perry has told confidants he plans to resign from the Trump administration by the end of the year. Perry, an Air Force veteran who was previously Texas’ longest serving governor, was to spend some time in the Oval Office but hadn’t intended to tell President Donald Trump of his departure timeline. Perry’s plan to depart comes ...

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IndusInd, hit by India’s shadow bank stress, says worst is over

Bloomberg IndusInd Bank, which saw a fifth of its market value wiped out over the past week on concern about its creditors, says the crisis of confidence engulfing India’s financial system is fading away. Outstanding loans to overstretched borrowers dipped at the Mumbai-based bank last quarter, lenders including IndusInd are working to resolve defaults at Dewan Housing Finance Ltd, and ...

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RBA tells banks not to be strict after rates cut

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank joined the government in warning lenders not to be too strict when assessing borrowers, fearing such caution could dent an already slowing economy. “It is important that banks are not overly cautious in the implementation of current lending policies,” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in its Financial Stability Review. “Lending always entails a degree of ...

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Danske non-resident unit ‘banker’ speaks out

Bloomberg Between 2009 and 2015, Mihhail Murnikov spent his days handling as many transactions as he could at the non-resident unit of Danske Bank in Estonia. Roughly a year after Danske admitted that those transactions were part of a $220 billion money laundering scandal, prosecutors from Tallinn to Washington are still trying to get to the bottom of what really ...

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Former Credit Suisse CEO calls negative rates ‘crazy’

Bloomberg Oswald Gruebel, who led both of Switzerland’s two biggest banks during his career, criticised negative interest rates and argued they’d lead to a further decline of the country’s financial sector. “Negative interest rates are crazy. That means money is not worth anything anymore,” Gruebel said in an interview with Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag. “As long as we have ...

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$63b of zombie buildings sound alarm for Indian banks

Bloomberg Ashish Shah is caught in the middle of India’s latest financial crisis. As chief operating officer of Radius Developers, he’s struggling to fund construction of apartment complexes because of a liquidity crunch in the nation’s bloated shadow-banking sector. “Real estate is a sitting duck,” said Shah. “The timing is very crucial as the slowdown has hit the real estate ...

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Stock havens cost more just when investors need them

Bloomberg Some of the highest valuations in years can’t keep exchange-traded fund investors from hunkering down in the safest pockets of the US equity market. As the S&P 500 Index began October with its third week of losses, utilities ETFs took in $726 million, the most of any industry, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Investors had already piled into defensive ...

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Swiss franc weakness short-lived as haven allure may return

Bloomberg The franc is trading near a two-week low versus the euro on Swiss data weakness, with both positioning and charts signaling more short-term pain. Yet, losses may be limited as the currency’s haven appeal should eventually prevail amid the deepening global economic gloom. The franc has pared its year-to-date advance to about 3% on expectations the Swiss National Bank ...

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