White House policy adviser Stephen Miller’s prickly performance at a news conference last week to discuss new immigration legislation didn’t get the greatest reviews. But I actually kind of enjoyed his response to CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s charge (the quotes that follow are from CNN’s transcript of the briefing) that “what you’re proposing here, what the president’s proposing here does …

Bloomberg A risk-off tone gripped markets on Wednesday, with gold, the Japanese yen and bonds rising as ten- sion grew between the US and North Korea. European stocks slumped following declines across most of Asia. The yellow metal headed for its largest increase in two months while the yen and Swiss franc posted the biggest gains among G-10 currencies after …

DUBAI / Reuters Middle Eastern stock markets generally moved sideways in quiet trade on Wednesday, outperforming other emer- ging markets, though Dubai theme park operator DXB Entertainments sank because of poor first-half earnings. The Gulf has underperformed global emerging markets this year, hit by low oil prices and government austerity policies. But this may have left the Gulf less vulnerable …

Dubai / WAM Dubai Land Department (DLD) announced that the total value of real estate transactions excee- ded AED390 billion across 95,000 transactions in the 18 months from January 1, 2016 to July 31, 2017. Commenting on the results, Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director General of DLD, said, “These figures demonstrate an atmosphere of optimism across the real estate market. …

DUBAI / WAM Major General Obaid Rashid Al Hossan Al Shamsi, Head of the Executive Directorate of Strategic Analysis at the Ministry of Defence, has met with Samuel Tan Chi Tse, Ambassador of the Republic of Singapore to the UAE, where the two sides discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen them. The meeting, which was held at the ministry’s …

Dubai / WAM The Emirates Investment Bank (EIBank) posted a net profit of AED8.86 million for Q2 2017, against AED7.88 million for Q2 2016, marking a growth of 12.4 percent. Net profit for H1 stood at AED25.43 million, up 99.3 percent on H1 2016 when it recorded AED12.76 million, with the total assets under the Bank’s management decreasing 9.7 percent …

Abu Dhabi / Reuters OPEC expects greater adherence to its pact with non-OPEC producers to cut oil output after two days of meetings in Abu Dhabi aimed at boosting compliance with the accord. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers are cutting output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018 to get …

RAS AL KHAIMAH / WAM National Bank of Ras al-Khaimah (RAKBANK) announced that it has mandated Bank ABC (Arab Banking Corporation (B.S.C.)), First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC (FAB), and Standard Chartered Bank as the Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners to arrange on its behalf a debut $250 million 3-year syndicated term loan facility (the “Facility”). The Facility will be …

Abu Dhabi / WAM Service Hero, the region’s only consumer powered customer satisfaction index “CSI”, announced a two-point growth in UAE customer satisfaction during first half of 2017. These results were made public as the as the company released its six months “Customer Satisfaction Index” for the UAE, which scored a total of 77.7 satisfaction rate. Most of the 14 …

RAS AL KHAIMAH / Emirates Business The National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah (RAKBANK) announced a strategic partnership with Invoice Bazaar, a FinTech Supply Chain Finance platform in the United Arab Emirates. The partnership allows RAKBANK to participate as a ‘Receivable Purchaser’ on Supply Chain Finance transactions originated by Invoice Bazaar on its platform. RAKBANK is the first bank in the …