April, 2018

• 8 April

  Trump tweets toy with stocks as trade bluster shakes Wall Street

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump’s got the stock market on a string, but investors are less sure of the game he’s playing. The Republican president’s renewed ramblings on trade dominated US equity markets this week, with a tweet-induced swoon on April 6 leaving the S&P 500 Index 1.4 percent lower than where it started on Monday. The gauge swung wildly, notching four …

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• 8 April

  Saudi stock market up, Kuwait rebounds

  

  Reuters The Saudi Arabian stock market remained in positive territory on Sunday after rebounding late last week from several days of profit-taking, while a pullback by two blue chips dragged down Abu Dhabi. The Saudi stock index closed up 0.2 percent. Food and beverage company Almarai added 3.5 percent after announcing first-quarter net profit of 344 million riyals ($91.7 million) …

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• 8 April

  Saudi’s Sabic to raise chemical output capacity 70% by 2025

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Basic Industries Corp plans to boost production capacity 70 percent by 2025 as the Middle East’s dominant chemical maker works with new joint-venture partners and expands its footprint in the heart of the US shale boom. Increasing chemical production is crucial to Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” blueprint, which envisions creating higher-value products and jobs, Yousef al Benyan, chief …

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• 8 April

  Growing fleet of gasoline off European coast threatens to sink profits

  

  LONDON / Reuters Gasoline stored in ships off Europe’s coast has ballooned to more than 400,000 tonnes, putting pressure on the continent’s traders to compete for buyers once summer demand starts. Several vessels have joined the three initially booked to store fuel off Europe’s ports in mid-March, and brokers said even barges have held cargoes of gasoline for three to …

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• 8 April

  Algeria seeks to cut energy consumption after oil earnings fall

  

  ALGIERS / Reuters Algeria is offering motorists incentives to more than double the number of cars running on natural gas by 2021 in an effort to reduce consumption of costly imported fuel amid strained public finances, officials said. The North African country has been struggling with a halving since 2014 of vital oil and gas revenues, which make up 60 …

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• 8 April

  Kazakhstan to resolve ‘profit row’ by June

  

  ASTANA / Reuters Kazakhstan hopes to settle a profit sharing dispute with global energy companies developing the Karachaganak gas condensate field by June, its deputyenergy minister said, after talks were repeatedly extended. Eni and Shell have the biggest stakes in the Karachaganak project, which they jointly operate. “Negotiations on the Karachaganak project are rather active, we meet almost daily, our …

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• 8 April

  Pavilion Energy imports first LNG cargo for S’pore

  Bloomberg Singapore’s state-owned natural gas importer brought in its first cargo of a super-chilled form of the fuel for domestic use. Pavilion Energy Pte, owned by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte, unloaded the liquefied natural gas cargo from the tanker Al Oraiq. Pavilion last year became one of two companies, along with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, to be granted a license …

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• 8 April

  Banks see fast pace for Mideast, Africa deals in ‘bumper year’

  

  Bloomberg Asset sales from Saudi power plants and football clubs to African energy firms are set to help deliver a bumper year for deals in the region. Investment banks expect the pace of transactions in the Middle East and Africa to gain momentum after a busy first quarter. Mergers and initial public offerings in the first three months of 2018 …

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• 8 April

  China forex reserves up as dollar weakness continues

  

  BEIJING / Reuters China’s foreign exchange reserves rose slightly in March as broad US dollar weakness continued and escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies bolstered expectations of a firmer Chinese currency. Reserves rose $9 billion in March to $3.143 trillion, compared with a drop of $27 billion in February, central bank data showed on Sunday. Economists polled …

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• 8 April

  Fed’s Evans optimistic on inflation, wants rate hikes

  

  CHICAGO / Reuters Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans, one of the Fed’s most dovish policymakers, said that he is optimistic inflation will reach the Fed’s 2 percent goal and that slow, gradual rate increases will be appropriate. “Fiscal policy has been much more supportive of further growth and so the need for accommodative monetary policy is less than …

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