May, 2018

• 29 May

  Exxon CEO’s solution to slumping shares: drill big, drill better

  Bloomberg Darren Woods is mounting a strong defense of his plan to rescue Exxon Mobil Corp. from its share-price slump with a multibillion dollar investment spree that’s at odds with the belt-tightening undertaken by rivals. Far from preaching spending caps or showering investors with cash, Woods’ solution, outlined in an interview, is to invest heavily in mega-projects that he says …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Asia offshore wind lures Japan trading houses

  

  Bloomberg Untapped offshore wind is luring Japan’s biggest commodity houses to invest in projects in Taiwan and at home, buoyed by favorable government policies that support development of the clean power. Mitsui & Co. this month bought a stake in the Taiwanese wind developer Yushan Energy Co. that gives the Tokyo-based company a 20 percent stake in a 300-megawatt offshore …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  US power payout sends surprise boost to coal, N-plants

  

  Bloomberg Embattled coal and nuclear power-plant operators stand to get a lot more money to provide capacity to the biggest US electricity grid — if they can hold on for another three years. Generators are going to make $140 a megawatt-day for the year starting in June 2021, 83 percent more than the prior year, according to the results of …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  US stocks drop as Italian woes trigger selloff; dollar rallies

  

  Bloomberg Stocks declined, while Treasuries and the dollar rallied as the escalating political crisis in Italy engulfed markets. The S&P 500 Index dropped for a third session, following the biggest decline since March in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, as Italian political turmoil lead to gridlock and set the course for another election. The flight from risk began in Italy’s …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  European markets shudder over Italy

  

  Bloomberg It looks like the debt crisis days of 2012 all over again for investors, as Italian, Portuguese and Greek bond yields surged and billionaire George Soros warned of an “ existential threat” to the European Union. The trigger was the prospect of anti-EU, nationalist parties in Italy turning a repeat election into a de facto referendum on Italy’s membership …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Fed’s Bullard warns against rate hikes amid low inflation bets

  

  Bloomberg The Fed should slow its pace of policy normalisation to help re-align price expectations around 2 percent and maintain the credibility of its inflation target, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said on Tuesday in Tokyo. “Inflation expectations in the US remain somewhat low, suggesting that further normalisation may not be necessary to keep inflation near …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Regulator unearths $7bn of bad loans at big Indian banks

  

  Bloomberg Bad loans at India’s five biggest state-run banks were about 456.8 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) more than the lenders had assessed. Audits by the regulator for the year ended March 31, 2017, revealed the discrepancies, triggering large losses as the banks increased provisions. If you add IDBI Bank Ltd., which doesn’t feature among the biggest but got the largest …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait looks out for acquisitions as Gulf lenders merge

  

  Bloomberg Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait is on the look out for acquisitions in the Gulf region as it seeks to boost revenue from international operations. “We want to manage and absorb the last merger, but we’re always looking for acquisitions,” Chief Executive Officer Michel Accad said in an interview in Kuwait City. “We can consider anything at the right …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  ‘MiFID II to exacerbate dip in analyst coverage’

  

  Bloomberg The biggest bank in the Nordic region says Europe’s revision of market rules is likely to exacerbate a slump in the number of analysts covering smaller companies, making it harder for them to raise capital. Nordea Bank AB says the firms affected by the development should consider commissioning their own research to help “alleviate the risk of falling off …

  Read More »
• 29 May

  Italian drama reawakens fear of Europe’s sovereign-bank loop

  

  Bloomberg Reports of the death of the sovereign-bank “ doom loop” are greatly exaggerated. Italian government bonds have blown up, with the yield on two-year notes skyrocketing by as much as 192 basis points on Tuesday to the highest level since 2012. Spreads on subordinated de-bts from euro-area financial companies, meanwhile, have jumped in sympathy as Rome’s political turmoil reverberates …

  Read More »