August, 2018

• 8 August

  US stocks mixed amid trade fears; oil drops, bonds steady

  

  Bloomberg US stocks erased early losses prompted by renewed trade fears as gains in megacap technology shares left major benchmarks little changed. Oil slumped and Treasuries rose. The S&P 500 Index was flat after a four-day advance as Washington and Beijing set dates for new levies on billions in goods. Trading was 20 percent below average. Tech and bank shares ...

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• 8 August

  Ruble heads towards 20-month slump as ‘US bill’ jolts Russia

  

  Bloomberg The ruble headed for its weakest closing level since November 2016 and Russian stocks and bonds plunged after local media published the full text of a US bill seeking “crushing sanctions” for election meddling. The currency slid 2.2 percent to 64.91 per dollar on Wednesday, sinking the most among major peers and breaking out of a range it’s traded ...

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• 8 August

  Starwood ready to acquire GE’s energy-finance unit for $2.6bn

  

  Bloomberg Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Property Trust Inc. agreed to buy a General Electric Co. energy-finance business for $2.56 billion to expand beyond real estate holdings. The acquisition includes a roughly $2.1 billion portfolio of 51 loans backed by assets such as pipelines, power plants and wind farms, as well as $400 million of unfunded commitments, Starwood and GE said in ...

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• 8 August

  Centrica ‘gas unit’ hits millions of UK energy users with price hike

  

  Bloomberg Centrica Plc raised its price for power and gas for a second time this year, citing soaring costs of buying energy on the wholesale market. The utility’s British Gas unit, the nation’s biggest supplier to homes, will increase its standard variable tariff in October, hiking the average bill for the 3.5 million customers on the plan by 3.8 percent ...

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• 8 August

  Virgin buys damaged Caribbean solar farm

  Bloomberg A clean-power company owned by billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has taken over a Caribbean solar farm that was damaged last year by Hurricane Maria. Virgin’s BMR Energy unit, which develops, owns and operates clean-energy projects in the Caribbean and Latin America, plans to restore the 4-megawatt farm in St. Croix, the US Virgin Islands, and take over a ...

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• 8 August

  Oil price jump sends Saudi quarterly revenue up 67%

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s second-quarter budget revenue increased 67 percent from the year-earlier period as higher oil prices helped boost income, the country’s Finance Ministry said in a statement. Revenue climbed to 273.6 billion riyals ($73 billion), boosted by an 82 percent increase in oil revenue, the ministry said on Wednesday. Non-oil revenue rose 42 percent to 89.4 billion riyals, while ...

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• 8 August

  Energy deals decline in Canada as oil rally heals

  

  Bloomberg Investors have been pushing Canadian energy companies to merge so they can cut costs and combine resources. That isn’t going so well this year. The value of deals involving Canadian oil, natural gas and pipeline companies slumped 29 percent to $45.5 billion in the first seven months of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Exclude $22.3 billion ...

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• 8 August

  Snap’s revenue gains signal more stability as Saudi’s Alwaleed invests

  Bloomberg Snap Inc. shares fell the most in about two months after the company reported its first-ever drop in daily active users. But revenue gains in the second quarter proved that the company is making headway in the mobile-advertising market dominated by Facebook Inc. and Google. The declining user numbers at Snapchat, attributed to an unpopular app redesign, worried analysts ...

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• 8 August

  ABN to raise payout after pruning investment bank

  

  Bloomberg Dutch state-controlled bank ABN Amro Group NV is edging towards raising its payout to shareholders after a strong second quarter and cuts to its underperforming investment bank. “Yes, we feel more confident there after this quarter,” Chief Executive Officer Kees van Dijkhuizen said at a press conference when asked about a dividend increase. The higher payout could take the ...

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• 8 August

  Commonwealth Bank’s record-profit run ends on series of scandal costs

  

  Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s record-profit run is over after the nation’s biggest lender paid the price for a series of scandals and missteps. Cash profit from continuing operations fell 4.8 percent to A$9.23 billion ($6.85 billion) in the 12 months ended on June 30, the Sydney-based lender said in a statement. That was the first drop in annual profit ...

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