July, 2018

• 22 July

  Sizzling US heat strains power grids, withers Texas cotton

  

  Bloomberg It’s so hot in Texas that the power grid keeps breaking demand records, and it’s forecast to get so warm in California next week that natural gas prices have risen to a nine-year seasonal high. The Dallas-Fort Worth area shattered a 93-year-old daily heat record, reaching 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius), the sixth straight day of triple-digit temperatures. It ...

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• 22 July

  Stocks are still in a bull market

  

  Bloomberg It may not be obvious amid the screaming headlines — about currency manipulation, Fed jawboning, Russia summit, yuan weakening, etc. — but US stocks continue their low-volatility, bull-market grind higher. The 2,800 level on the S&P 500 has been bested three sessions in a row on a closing basis — and is on pace for a fourth. That level ...

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• 22 July

  Egypt considers majority stakes in more public firms

  

  Bloomberg Egypt is considering adding companies to the list of state-run firms in which investors can secure majority stakes as it readies to launch a programme aimed at reviving the battered public sector. The government is planning to start with the sale of Heliopolis Housing and Eastern Tobacco in October, Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik said. So far, however, a ...

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• 22 July

  Merkel’s natural gas bridge looks like a dead end to execs

  

  Bloomberg Energy executives say the fuel Chancellor Angela Merkel has picked for Germans as a bridge towards a cleaner future could turn out to be another dead end without political guarantees to draw investment. “I can’t imagine a rational investor who would invest in large-scale gas capacity” without government assurances, said Uniper SE Chief Executive Officer Klaus Schaefer in Berlin. ...

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• 22 July

  Global warming suit against oil companies tossed

  

  Bloomberg A US judge threw out New York’s lawsuit seeking to hold five of the world’s biggest oil companies financially responsible for contributing to climate change. US District Judge John Keenan dismissed the city’s claims against Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips, ruling that the federal Clean Air Act controls carbon dioxide emissions ...

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• 22 July

  European utilities drop as SSE warns dry weather to hit profit

  Bloomberg European utilities fell after UK energy company SSE Plc said the dry, mild weather that cut quarterly profit could hurt full-year results. The Stoxx Europe 600 Utilities index dropped to a two-week low, led by Orsted AS, the world’s biggest offshore wind-farm developer. SSE, the second-worst performer, fell the most since May and UK energy supplier Centrica Plc slumped ...

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• 22 July

  Trump power plan could cost $35 billion a year: Opponents

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration’s plan to subsidise unprofitable coal and nuclear plants may cost as much as $35 billion a year, according to a study backed by trade groups opposed to the idea. Giving power plants an out-of-market annual payment of $50 per kilowatt of capacity — roughly the average operating shortfall for plants running at a deficit — would ...

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• 22 July

  KKR-led group buys Taiwan’s LCY Chemical for $1.56 billion

  

  Bloomberg KKR & Co. said it is taking over Taiwanese company LCY Chemical Corp. in a deal valued at $1.56 billion, as the global buyout firm seeks to make additional majority stakes purchases in Greater China. A consortium led by New York-based KKR agreed to acquire all of LCY’s shares for NT$56 each, a 17.3 percent premium to July 20’s ...

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• 22 July

  Farfetch buys China firm to bring luxury brands to WeChat

  

  Bloomberg Online fashion retailer Farfetch UK Ltd is buying a Chinese digital marketing agency to help sell luxury brands to consumers on Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat messaging service. Farfetch is acquiring CuriosityChina and will integrate it into its services division, providing the likes of high-end shoe designer Manolo Blahnik with packages of digital solutions. It’s been trying to boost its ...

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• 22 July

  China Tower draws Hillhouse, Alibaba unit to Hong Kong IPO

  

  Bloomberg China Tower Corp., the state-owned wireless infrastructure operator, has attracted Hillhouse Capital and a unit of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as investors in its planned Hong Kong initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. Hillhouse funds and Taobao China Holding Ltd. are among the 10 firms that agreed to buy about $1.4 billion of stock as ...

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