July, 2017

• 31 July

  Spotify follows Apple with a new podcast initiative

  

  Bloomberg Spotify Ltd. is tiptoeing into new businesses again. The No. 1 paid music streaming service has agreed to promote podcasts in its app and via ads on buses. In return, the hosts of “Reply All,” “Pod Save America” and “The Bill Simmons Podcast” agreed to talk up Spotify on social media and during their shows that cover topics ranging ...

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• 31 July

  Saudi weighs oil-price linked tax for Aramco before IPO

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is considering a flexible tax system for state-owned oil company Aramco that wo- uld increase royalty payments when crude prices rise, accor- ding to people familiar with the deliberations. Riyadh is mulling a proposal from Saudi Aramco to replace the current fixed royalty on revenues, the same people said, asking not to be named discussing government policies. ...

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• 31 July

  Oil near $50 as traders await US reaction to Venezuelan vote

  

  Bloomberg Oil traded near $50 a barrel in New York as efforts by Venezuela’s president to seize more power raised speculation the US could step up sanctions. Futures were little changed after surging 8.6 percent last week. The US is said to be considering increasing sanctions against Venezuela’s oil industry, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the ...

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• 31 July

  US utilities find new way to make money

  

  Bloomberg There’s a new model emerging for growth-starved utilities looking to profit from America’s solar and wind power boom. American Electric Power Co. is using it for a $4.5 billion deal that’ll land the US utility owner a massive wind farm in Oklahoma and a high-voltage transmission line to deliver the power. NextEra Energy Inc.’s Florida unit is using it ...

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• 31 July

  Oil bosses see more pain as recovery slips to 2020

  

  Bloomberg Three years into the biggest oil downturn in a generation, industry bosses see the recovery slipping further from view. It could easily take until the end of the decade for better times to return to an industry that’s already endured a longer slump than most people expected, according to Total SA Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne and Weatherford International ...

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• 31 July

  Alphabet to fix clean energy’s storage problem with salt

  

  Bloomberg Alphabet Inc.’s secretive X skunk works has another idea that could save the world. This one, code named Malta, involves vats of salt and antifreeze. The research lab, which hatched Google’s driverless car almost a decade ago, is developing a system for storing renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. It can be located almost anywhere, has the potential ...

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• 31 July

  Can Pompeo keep the CIA out of the ditch?

  

  If the ghosts who inhabit the walls of the CIA could talk, they would tell Director Mike Pompeo to be careful. The agency is entering a danger zone where a White House in turmoil wants the CIA to take aggressive action overseas, but hasn’t developed the clear strategy or political support needed to sustain it. Pompeo is an activist, an ...

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• 31 July

  Europe’s stressed bankers are getting killed by calmness

  

  The election of Emmanuel Macron in France vindicated euro optimists, boosted stock markets and paved the way for lenders like Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG to raise extra capital. What it didn’t do was unleash a wave of revenue growth for Europe’s top investment banks — at least judging by their latest quarterly earnings. The combination of ...

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• 31 July

  Donald Trump’s tax trade goes cold

  

  President Donald Trump says cutting corporate taxes is his No. 1 priority after repealing Obamacare. And House Republicans laid out recently what they would like to see done with the tax code. Investors, though, appear to have lost faith in their ability to follow through. The shares of the 100 S&P 500 companies that paid the highest effective tax rates ...

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• 31 July

  As Sharif goes, politics in Pakistan failed again

  Given Pakistan’s history of coups, political dysfunction and high-level graft, the Supreme Court’s decision to oust Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for lying about his allegedly ill-gotten wealth would seem a victory for transparency and the rule of law. In fact, the verdict raises as many questions as it answers. Sharif resigned on Friday when the court disqualified him from ...

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