December, 2018

• 19 December

  UK retail bonds decline amid shopping season

  Bloomberg Bonds of UK retailers extended declines as the industry’s crisis deepens in the run-up to the Christmas holiday. New Look Retail Group Ltd.’s 700 million pounds ($886 million) of notes due in July 2022 fell for a 16th day to about 46 pence, the lowest in six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The British fashion chain is ...

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• 18 December

  Saudi Arabia boosts spending in 2019 budget to SAR1.106 trillion

  

  RIYADH / WAM The Saudi Council of Ministers, chaired by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has approved the largest budget in the Kingdom’s history with SAR1.106 trillion spending in 2019, approximately 7 percent higher than the projected expenditure by the end of the fiscal year 2018. This came in a session held ...

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• 18 December

  Adnoc, Cepsa award Spanish firm key contract in Ruwais

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and its project partner Cepsa have announced the awarding of a key contract, as both companies move forward with plans to develop a world-scale linear alkyl benzene (LAB) plant in the Ruwais Derivatives Park. The LAB project is the first of the derivative units to be advanced under Adnoc’s ...

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• 18 December

  Mubadala, Dubal, EGA to sign AED1bn JV deal

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), Mubadala and Dubal Holding will sign an agreement worth over AED1 billion to develop a state-of-the-art power block and a water desalination plant at EGA’s smelter at Jebel Ali in Dubai. The new facilities will improve efficiency of power for EGA’s aluminium smelting, reducing environmental emissions and natural gas consum- ption. Mubadala ...

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• 18 December

  China inks raft of energy deals as Xi signals openness for business

  

  Bloomberg China signalled its openness for business with a raft of deals that’ll give oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc new opportunities to develop fields in partnership with the nation’s biggest offshore explorer. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said in Beijing on Tuesday that it had inked oil and gas accords with nine firms. The signing ceremony followed ...

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• 18 December

  SSE pulls plug on merger with Innogy

  

  Bloomberg SSE Plc and Innogy SE terminated plans to create the UK’s second-biggest utility, the latest sign of pressure on the industry from increasing regulation. SSE’s board decided it wasn’t in the best interest of the company to proceed with the deal to combine its retail business with Innogy’s Npower unit after it emerged last month that more cash would ...

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• 18 December

  S&P 500 Index climbs from 14-month low as Fed looms

  

  Bloomberg The S&P 500 Index climbed from a 14-month low as investor nerves seemed to steady a day after a rout in US stocks. US stock gains were led by technology and health companies. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index pared losses by more than half to trade slightly lower on the day. Treasuries and the Japanese yen advanced amid a ...

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• 18 December

  Traders see no-deal Brexit to sink pound

  

  Bloomberg For foreign-exchange traders, a no-deal Brexit is bound to sink the pound no matter what protections are put in place to mitigate immediate financial risks. As lawmakers hit gridlock over Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed withdrawal accord, some have suggested Britain could leave the European Union without a divorce deal in hand and take steps to control and contain ...

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• 18 December

  ECB’s $204bn corporate bond buying upends credit markets

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s purchase of almost 180 billion euros ($204 billion) of corporate bonds has upended the region’s credit markets, even if some fast-moving indicators are back to pre-intervention levels. Metrics such as spreads and the number of negative-yielding bonds have largely returned to levels seen in early 2016, before the ECB announced plans to start buying corporate ...

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• 18 December

  Banks test Frankfurt rate swaps move

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG and 16 other lenders recently tested moving interest-rate swap positions from London to Frankfurt, according to people familiar with the matter, a signal that financial firms are pushing ahead with preparations for no-deal Brexit. The banks made dummy trades on December 3 in the first known dry run of a service that could move trillions of ...

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