March, 2019

• 6 March

  Big bonuses return for Europe energy traders as prices rally

  

  Bloomberg After a few years of roughly stable payouts for many of Europe’s energy traders, big bonuses are back for the cream of the crop. The best traders in natural gas to power can look forward to handsome rewards after navigating markets that last year sparked to life with more bullish trends and a good dose of volatility. More people …

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• 6 March

  Ecopetrol CEO says $3.6bn Colombia stake not needed

  

  Bloomberg The head of Colombia’s state oil company Ecopetrol said he doesn’t see the need for the government to sell another stake in the company — an idea the finance minister supports. The ministry is weighing the sale of an 8.5 percent stake in Ecopetrol, worth about $3.6 billion. CEO Felipe Bayon said such a sale could take as long …

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• 6 March

  PDVSA’s Caribbean footprint is waning

  

  Bloomberg Despite sitting on top of the world’s largest crude reserves, the reach of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company is receding. In the 1980s Petroleos de Venezuela SA started an international expansion with the objective of finding new outlets for its growing oil production. The company bought Citgo Petroleum Corp. in the US, leased the Isla refinery in Curacao, bought a …

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• 6 March

  US stocks edge lower as dollar rallies for fifth day

  

  Bloomberg US stocks edged lower as investors struggled to find inspiration after a torrid start to the year. The dollar rallied for a fifth day. The S&P 500 Index fell 0.1 percent. Equities opened lower amid a lack of progress on the US-China trade deal before briefly erasing losses on home-sales and service-industries data that beat estimates. General Electric Co. …

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• 6 March

  A $1trillion rally’s reward is billions of ETF outflows

  

  Bloomberg European stocks may be off to a roaring start this year, but exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking them aren’t immune to the outflows that hit US equity funds earlier in the quarter. Despite an 11 percent surge for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, ETFs targeting region’s shares have bled more than $4 billion in 2019. Among the biggest losers: benchmark …

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• 6 March

  Swiss banks an Italian target after record UBS French fine

  

  Bloomberg Italian financial police are demanding Swiss lenders disclose the names of bankers working in Italy, setting up a potential clash with regulators after UBS Group AG was hit with a record fine by French authorities. The Guardia di Finanza has sent a letter to Swiss lenders asking for a list of all their Italian units, data on local relationship …

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• 6 March

  Indian banks risk adding $25bn bad debt on court move

  

  Bloomberg A year after India’s central bank tightened the screws on companies delaying debt payments, the nation’s Supreme Court is poised to begin hearing arguments on whether the regulator’s diktat applies across industries. Hanging in the balance is the fate of more than $25 billion of loans to power producers. They are among parties contesting the central bank directive that …

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• 6 March

  Mizuho Group’s surprise $6.1 billion charge shows risks of yield quest

  

  Bloomberg Japanese banks’ quest for yield is creating more turbulence, with Mizuho Financial Group Inc. announcing another round of losses on its foreign-bond holdings as part of a surprise writedown that will severely curtail full-year profit. Mizuho slashed its net income forecast by 86 percent on Wednesday after booking 680 billion yen ($6.1 billion) of charges tied to business restructuring …

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• 6 March

  Deutsche Bank equities unit records huge loss

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG estimates that its equities trading unit lost about $750 million last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The US equities unit hasn’t turned a profit for many years, the people said. The bank at one point considered closing its entire equities operation, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the matter. …

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• 6 March

  As US banks shut branches, JPMorgan shifts towards wealthy

  

  Bloomberg Aberdeen, Washington, is a far Northwest outpost of JPMorgan Chase & Co., with one lonely branch perched near the Pacific, 2,900 miles from Wall Street. Now the bank is planning to depart the rainy timber town that gave the world Kurt Cobain. The next-closest Chase branch is 40 miles away. At the same time, JPMorgan plans to open 70 …

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