April, 2017

• 5 April

  LNG producers turn to risk taking, trading to maintain market share

  

    CHIBA / Reuters Producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have shot themselves in the foot with oversupply, and face calls for flexibility and greater competition from other fuels that may force them to take more risks and start trading just like other commodity dealers. That’s a big change for a market long dominated by large producers such as Royal ...

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• 5 April

  Saudi picks hybrid structure for debut dollar sukuk

    Bloomberg Saudi Arabia has chosen a hybrid structure for its debut international sukuk, the prospectus for the offer showed, a format widely used in the Saudi local debt market, but not the most popular for sovereign issues. The Islamic bond, expected to go up to $10 billion, will be the country’s second international debt sale after a $17.5 billion ...

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• 5 April

  Oil extends gain above $51 as focus returns to US inventories

  

    Bloomberg Oil rose to the highest in almost a month as investor focus returned to US crude inventories after supply disruptions and optimism over OPEC’s output curbs drove a rally in the past week. Futures added as much as 1.3 percent in New York, the sixth increase in seven days. US stockpiles shrank by 1.83 million barrels last week, ...

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• 5 April

  Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil to explore for oil and gas in Cyprus

    DOHA / Reuters Qatar Petroleum (QP) and ExxonMobil will start drilling for oil and gas off the southern coast of Cyprus in 2018, the Qatari firm said after signing an exploration and production sharing contract with the Mediterranean island. Exploring the Mediterranean’s Levant Basin has become more attractive since Eni discovered Egypt’s offshore Zohr field in 2015, the biggest ...

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• 5 April

  Visa revamp to benefit big US tech, punish outsourcers

  

    Bloomberg The new way foreign worker visas are doled out in the US is poised to benefit some of the biggest technology companies, like Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Facebook Inc., while punishing outsourcing firms that developed a disproportionate dependence on the program. The administration is increasing scrutiny on H-1B visa applications for low-level computer programmers, focusing enforcement on ...

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• 5 April

  Toronto home prices jump 33% in March as market tightens

  

    Bloomberg Toronto’s residential housing market showed no signs of cooling last month, with the average sale price soaring a record 33 percent from a year ago, pushing the cost of a detached home in the heart of the city to almost C$1.6 million ($1.2 million). In Toronto and surrounding suburbs prices climbed by a third in every major housing ...

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• 5 April

  US firms turn to European targets as home deals lag

  

    Bloomberg Uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s domestic policies and weak European currencies buoyed outbound dealmaking by US companies during the first quarter of the year. US acquirers spent more than $70 billion on European targets in the three months to March 31, more than double the amount they dropped in the same period a year earlier and the most ...

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• 5 April

  Seattle’s try to unionize Uber, Lyft drivers hits roadblock

  

    Bloomberg Seattle’s first-in-the-nation law allowing drivers-for-hire to unionize was blocked by a federal judge, giving a boost to ride-hailing companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. US District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle on Tuesday granted a request by the US Chamber of Commerce to put the city’s ordinance on hold before it goes into effect. The ...

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• 5 April

  Why economics failed to warn of looming disaster!

  

    When people come up to me and declare that economists are charlatans, they usually mention how economists failed to predict the Great Recession. This is true. No mainstream macroeconomic model of the day managed to anticipate that the largest, longest economic downturn since the Great Depression was imminent, until it was already underway. Macroeconomists typically respond that forecasting isn’t ...

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• 5 April

  How Asia can help burst Sydney’s property bubble

  

    Looking at the headlong growth in Australian house prices — up 19 percent from a year earlier in Sydney in March — it’s tempting to believe that the market is simply uncontrollable. In 2014, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), announced measures to restrict the increase in investment mortgages. For three quarters it seemed to be working, with loan ...

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