November, 2018

• 28 November

  Nine million fewer Americans shopped this Black Friday

  

  Bloomberg Total holiday shopping this year might be one for the record books, but you wouldn’t know it looking at this past weekend’s numbers. More than 165 million Americans shopped either in stores or online during the five-day period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday — more than expected, but well below the 174 million shoppers during the same period …

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• 27 November

  Saudi Aramco seeks to buy more chemicals companies

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Aramco will seek more acquisitions to speed its expansion in refining and petrochemicals as Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with plans to diversify its economy from reliance on sales of crude. The purchases will be in addition to Aramco’s planned purchase of government-controlled chemicals producer Saudi Basic Industries Corp, Aramco Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said on Tuesday in …

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• 27 November

  Africa LNG set to surge as floating projects cut time to reach market

  

  Bloomberg Africa is on the cusp of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) boom. That’s in part due to accelerating global demand. It’s also down to a fast-track method of getting the fuel to market. Kosmos Energy Ltd’s project in Mauritania and Senegal, set to get the go-ahead next month, will use a floating vessel to convert gas from the offshore …

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• 27 November

  LNG is becoming more like oil market

  Bloomberg Some liquefied natural gas (LNG) sellers aren’t in a rush to deliver their multimillion-dollar cargoes. With uncertain demand and no signs yet of bitter cold, some traders are preferring to keep their fuel inside vessels in the hope prices will rise. While the sight of stationary cargoes might not be unusual in the more-established oil market, technology has only …

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• 27 November

  Clean power wins in emerging markets

  Bloomberg Developing countries have added more clean power capacity than fossil fuel generation for the first time ever, charging ahead of wealthier nations in the global green energy push, according to Bloomberg NEF. Wind and solar generation accounted for just over half of the 186 gigawatts of new power capacity in developing nations last year, according to BNEF’s annual Climatescope …

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• 27 November

  Hong Kong home sales hit 12-year low in Nov

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s housing market is suffering its worst declines since 2016 — by multiple measures. New-home sales this month are on track to be the lowest by volume since January or February of that year, according to Midland Realty data. Meanwhile, used-home prices have fallen for eight weeks, the longest losing streak since 2016, according to the Centa-City Leading …

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• 27 November

  Stocks fall as trade talk weighs; Treasuries drop

  

  Bloomberg US stock futures fell as trade tensions with China flared and investors assessed comments from a Federal Reserve official. Treasuries declined. S&P 500 futures dropped after President Donald Trump threatened China with more tariffs days before a sit-down with his counterpart Xi Jinping. Apple looked set to fall deeper into a bear market as Trump suggested levies on mobile …

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• 27 November

  Nasdaq pursues Bitcoin futures despite its plunge

  

  Bloomberg Nasdaq Inc. is moving ahead with a plan to list Bitcoin futures, according to two people familiar with the matter, betting on sustained interest despite the cryptocurrency’s dramatic plunge over the past year. Nasdaq has been working to satisfy the concerns of the US’s main swaps regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, before launching the contracts, the people said. …

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• 27 November

  India set to push RBI to ease lending curb on weak banks

  

  Bloomberg The Indian government will push its central bank to ease lending restrictions for some weak banks and review rules governing its functioning at a board meeting next month, people with knowledge of the matter said. The members, including government nominees, will press for some of the weak banks to be removed from the so-called prompt corrective action list, particularly …

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• 27 November

  JPMorgan Asset Management expects a rough year ahead

  

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Asset Management is preparing for a rough year ahead in financial markets, and is taking to the higher-quality ground of short-dated Treasuries. Escalating trade tensions will likely be “the single most important issue moving global markets” in 2019, as they were in 2018, analysts wrote in a report on the outlook for the coming year. A deeper trade …

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