July, 2017

• 29 July

  Oil companies slash drilling budgets as caution takes hold

  

  Bloomberg Caution lights are flashing for the oil industry. Facing lower-than-expected commodity prices, drillers from ConocoPhillips to Hess Corp. to Statoil ASA have slashed their capital spending plans in recent days, as companies lay out their plans to cope with oil prices stuck below $50 a barrel. The budget cuts won’t necessarily mean less oil or natural gas on the ...

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• 29 July

  India wind projects in peril as states rethink purchases

  

  Bloomberg Two Indian states at the forefront of adding renewables to their power mix are backtracking on agreements for at least one gigawatt of wind projects and are seeking lower prices, potentially dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s green energy goals. The southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which account for a quarter of the country’s installed ...

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• 29 July

  OPEC, non-OPEC to discuss cut compliance

  

  Bloomberg Representatives of some OPEC and non-OPEC nations will meet in Abu Dhabi on August 7-8 to discuss why some of them are falling behind in their pledges to cut production, according to an OPEC statement. The meeting, co-chaired by Kuwait and Russia, will examine reasons why some countries aren’t fully implementing their cuts, it said. Some nations will argue ...

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• 29 July

  Kuwait joins Saudi, UAE to promise more oil cuts

  

  Bloomberg Kuwait joined the United Arab Emirates in promising to pump less oil after Saudi Arabia called on fellow OPEC producers to cut more supply to help curb the global glut. Kuwait Petroleum Corp. has agreed with customers in the US to reduce contractual sales volumes of oil for 2017, state-run KPC said. The announcement came after UAE Minister of ...

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• 29 July

  Oilfield rush to high-tech helps smaller companies thrive

  

  Bloomberg A wave of next-generation upstarts is hitting America’s oil patch, offering high-tech solutions aimed at an industry in flux following the worst crude-market crash in a generation. At a time when the five biggest oilfield servicers — still smarting from the price rout — have cut almost $1 billion from their research budgets, companies such as Ambyint Inc. are ...

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• 29 July

  Starbucks suffers worst rout in two years, targets China

  

  Bloomberg Starbucks Corp. suffered its biggest stock decline in almost two years after cutting its forecast, renewing fears about sputtering growth at the world’s largest coffee chain. The shares dropped as much as 8.2 percent to $54.63 in New York, the biggest intraday plunge since August 2015. Slowing growth in the US forced Starbucks to cut its profit forecast for ...

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• 29 July

  HNA Group seeks more arrangers for delayed property IPO

  

  Bloomberg HNA Commercial REIT is seeking to add arrangers to its planned Singapore initial public offering as Bank of America Corp. walks away from the deal, people with knowledge of the matter said. The property trust, backed by embattled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co., has been reaching out to investment banks to gauge their interest in taking a senior role ...

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• 29 July

  Toshiba to give Western Digital sale notice as fight is on

  

  Bloomberg Western Digital Corp. said it will move forward with arbitration to get a say over Toshiba Corp.’s sale of its chip unit after the Japanese company agreed to provide notice before closing. The companies announced they’d reached an agreement providing for two weeks’ advance notice. The two manufacturers, which are in a joint venture to produce memory chips, submitted ...

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• 29 July

  The slovenly institution that is US Congress

  

  In January 1988, in Ronald Reagan’s final State of the Union address, he noisily dropped on a table next to the podium in the House chamber three recent continuing resolutions, each more than a thousand pages long. Each was evidence of Congress’ disregard of the 1974 Budget Act. Reagan fumed: “…budget deadlines delayed or missed completely, monstrous continuing resolutions that ...

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• 29 July

  Boxing on, or boxed in? Indian banks are splintering

  

  When Moody’s Investors Service polled market participants in Hong Kong recently, 70% picked India’s banking system as the most vulnerable among seven countries in South and Southeast Asia. I wonder what remaining 30% were smoking. As another earnings season rolls on, the weaknesses of Indian lenders are once again obvious. What’s not as apparent, though, is an quadrifurcation of Indian ...

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