July, 2017

• 9 July

  There’s no alternative to patience with N Korea

  North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile changes the strategic landscape in Asia — yet the options for dealing with Pyongyang are as ugly as ever. The overriding need is to exploit these limited possibilities more thoroughly and creatively. The Hwasong-14 ballistic missile launched earlier this week could be capable of reaching Alaska, and a missile that can hit ...

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• 9 July

  Why banks aren’t likely to bolt the UK just yet

  

  Ever since Britain voted to leave the European Union, analysts have debated the City’s fate. In 2016, the British financial services sector employed more than 1 million people (3.1 percent of all UK jobs) and contributed around 7.2 percent of the UK’s total gross value added, just over half of it from London. Any threat to the sector — and ...

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• 9 July

  Thank China for putting some real steel in iron’s rise

  

  Something is stirring in the world’s iron ore markets. As of last Friday, benchmark ore delivered to China’s Qinhuangdao port was down 28 percent since the start of the year to $56.75 a metric ton. Then, suddenly, things changed: In just four days this week, it’s recovered more than a third of those losses to $64.71. Barring a major crash ...

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• 9 July

  Tesla is starting to face serious competition

  

  Volvo’s announcement that it intends to starts phasing out purely gasoline- and diesel-powered cars starting in 2019 in favor of electrified models appears strategically timed to coincide with the start of production of Tesla’s Model 3, which should be hitting the streets by the end of this month. It’s scary news for Tesla: The market for electric cars is largely ...

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• 9 July

  Saudi Aramco’s oil output rises to annual record

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil exporter, increased production to an annual record last year before the kingdom led OPEC and other major producers to curb output to counter a global oversupply. Crude production averaged 10.5 million barrels a day compared with 10.2 million barrels in 2015, the state-owned company known as Aramco said in its annual ...

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• 9 July

  Renewables top nukes in US power mix for first time since 1984

  

  Bloomberg For the first time in more than 30 years, America’s nuclear plants have fallen behind wind farms, solar panels and other renewable energy suppliers as a source of electricity. In March and April, US power from utility-scale renewables topped output from reactors for the first time since July 1984, according to a US Energy Information Administration report. Supplies from ...

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• 9 July

  Mississippi order ends Southern clean coal effort

  

  Bloomberg A seven-year, $7.5 billion effort to build a first-of-its-kind “clean coal” power plant in Mississippi is officially over. Mississippi regulators ordered utility owner Southern Co. to come up with a deal that’ll have the Kemper plant — once hailed by the Obama administration as the future of coal — running as a natural gas-fired generator instead. That ratified Southern’s ...

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• 9 July

  President’s aide questions Venezuela oil ventures

  

  Bloomberg Oil joint ventures that account for about 40 percent of Venezuela’s output are being thrown into question by the man advising President Nicolas Maduro in rewriting the constitution. “We’re going to change it,” Hermann Escarra, a constitutional lawyer who participated in the crafting of the country’s current charter and is advising Maduro on attempts to rewrite it, said on ...

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• 9 July

  Top oil traders bet American shale is here to stay

  

  Bloomberg The world’s biggest energy traders are betting shale oil production is here to stay. European trading houses from Trafigura Group Pte. to Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. and Vitol Group have invested in US infrastructure and struck supply deals to secure flows of shale oil and gas. The agreements show the traders see long-term opportunities in an industry that has ...

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• 9 July

  Red flags raised for India’s bond market as farmer bailouts rise

  

  Bloomberg Investors in India’s bond market are already raising red flags on the potential impact from populist farmer bailouts being engineered by different state governments. Yields on the so-called state development loans, or SDLs, climbed at the most recent auction, widening their spread over sovereign rates. The increase comes amid concern that waiving billions of dollars in farm loans will ...

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