January, 2018

• 6 January

  Key oil market indicator shows industry tightest in 3 years

  

  Bloomberg One of the key gauges of oil market strength hasn’t looked this good for bulls since 2014. West Texas Intermediate futures closest to expiry are trading at the biggest premium to the next month in more than three years, as inventories plunge at the key storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma. Stockpiles at Cushing — the delivery point for WTI ...

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• 6 January

  Natural gas in US soars 60-fold amid icy squeeze in Northeast

  Bloomberg Natural gas surged to 60 times the going rate as howling blizzard conditions stoked demand for the furnace fuel across the US Northeast. Spot prices for the fuel used to heat homes and generate power reached a record $175 per million British thermal units in New York, according to Consolidated Edison Inc. That’s a far cry from the $2.93 ...

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• 6 January

  US delays $125mn payment for Palestinians after Trump tweet

  

  Bloomberg The US has delayed paying about $125 million to the United Nations agency that serves Palestinian refugees, said two people familiar with the matter, after President Donald Trump vented his frustration about getting no “respect” or help in the peace process despite American funding. The US, by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) ...

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• 6 January

  US withholds Pak security aid over terrorism concerns

  Bloomberg The US is suspending security assistance to Pakistan as the Trump administration escalates pressure on the government in Islamabad to prevent terrorist groups from finding safe harbor in the country. The action announced is in addition to a decision disclosed earlier this week in which the National Security Council said the US will continue to withhold $255 million in ...

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• 6 January

  UN meeting on Iran protests called by US criticised

  

  Reuters A United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss recent protests in Iran turned into criticism of the United States for requesting to meet on what some member states said was an internal issue for Tehran. France’s ambassador to the UN said the protests do not threaten international peace and security, in what may be an implicit criticism of the ...

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• 6 January

  Trump says he is ‘very stable genius’

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he’s a “very stable genius” in an early Saturday tweet, a day after a new book about his first year in the White House claimed that many of his top aides and confidantes consider him unfit to hold office. “Throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. ...

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• 6 January

  Lithuanian top leaders clash over ‘Russia ties’

  

  Bloomberg Lithuania’s top politicians clashed over whether to rejuvenate ties with Russia that were frozen following President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has recently urged resuming dialog with the Russian government, advocating talks on topics such as trade, energy, agriculture and transport, while maintaining the current stance on Ukraine. President Dalia Grybauskaite, ...

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• 6 January

  Amzon’s Alexa-enabled digital glasses to make debut

  

  Bloomberg The first augmented-reality glasses with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will be shown next week at CES in Las Vegas—manufactured by a 75-employee company rather than the e-commerce giant’s growing devices division. Vuzix Corp. will show off a pair of smart glasses that can talk to Amazon.com Inc.’s voice-activated digital assistant and display information to the wearer’s field of view, ...

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• 6 January

  IBM, Comcast Ventures back blockchain startup fund

  

  Bloomberg International Business Machines Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s venture arm will become the largest supporters of an investment fund for startups that help corporations use blockchain, the digital ledger that’s become a hot technology. The startup accelerator, called MState, plans to invest $25,000 to $50,000 apiece in five or six companies over the next six months, co-founder Rob Bailey said. ...

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• 6 January

  Samsung’s ex-strategy chief Chi takes on GM, Google in robot taxis

  

  Bloomberg In the future of transportation, what would you get if you mixed the business models of Tesla Inc., Google and Samsung Electronics Co. with the budget of the world’s fifth-biggest automaker? Youngcho Chi is about to find out. Hired from Samsung, Chi has assembled a team of 200 strategists and researchers at Hyundai Motor Co., the 50-year-old South Korean ...

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