January, 2017

• 23 January

  4 dead in Austrian avalanche

    VIENNA / AP Four people have died over the weekend in Austria while skiing, snow-shoeing or sledding — an unusually high toll linked to winter sports in the country. The Austria Press Agency says that two Czech nationals snow-shoeing in Salzburg’s alpine region died Sunday after being buried in an avalanche while two others managed to free themselves. State ...

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• 23 January

  Hungary mourns bus crash victims

    BUDAPEST / AP Hungary’s national flag has been raised and then lowered to half-staff on a towering flagpole outside parliament as the country marked a day of mourning for the victims of a fiery bus crash in Italy involving students and teachers from a Budapest high school returning from a ski trip. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, President Janos Ader ...

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• 23 January

  Saudi shines, Kuwait bull run slows; Egypt rebounds

  

    DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia outperformed other Gulf stock markets on Monday as several major stocks bounced after poor earnings earlier this week, while a bull run in Kuwait slowed and Egypt rebounded sharply from a slide triggered by tax fears. The Saudi index rose 1.7 percent in the highest trading volume since Jan. 2. Food maker Savola, which ...

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• 23 January

  European stocks hit three-week low as Trump reality sets in

    Bloomberg European stocks and bond yields dropped on Monday and the dollar hit a six-week low after U.S. President Donald Trump began his term in office with a protectionist speech that pushed a nervous market into safe-haven assets. World stocks hit multi-year highs earlier this month on expectations Trump would boost growth and inflation with extraordinary fiscal spending measures. ...

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• 23 January

  National Bank of Kuwait posts $248.9mn profit in Q4

  

    DUBAI / Reuters National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) , the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, posted a 40 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, according to Reuters’ calculations, as the bank continued to benefit from government spending. The bank made a net profit of 75.9 million dinars ($248.9 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared with ...

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• 23 January

  Citigroup says it’s different for Europe profit growth

  

    Bloomberg Equity strategists are yet again predicting that this will finally be the year European profits deliver. This time, it’s Citigroup Inc.’s Jonathan Stubbs forecasting the region’s earnings will jump at least 10 percent to end a three-year dry spell. His bullishness on Europe is reminiscent of early 2015 and 2016, when strategists and investors doubled down on the ...

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• 23 January

  PBOC conducts 60bn yuan China open market operations

  

    Bloomberg China’s central bank added funds to the financial system through open-market operations, after injecting a record amount of cash last week and offering liquidity support to some lenders. The monetary authority added a net 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) using 14-day and 28-day reverse-repurchase agreements. There are no contracts maturing. The People’s Bank of China pumped in a ...

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• 23 January

  Angola banks appeal for bailout as oil slump cuts liquidity

  

    Bloomberg Angolan banks are appealing to the government to help put together a bailout package to protect account holders as lenders reel from low oil prices that make up almost all of the nation’s foreign-exchange earnings. Financial assistance could come from the administration of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos or be shared by all of the southwest African country’s ...

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• 23 January

  Investors bet on oil rebound

  

    Bloomberg Hedge funds are showing they have some faith in OPEC. Their bets on rising West Texas Intermediate crude prices reached the highest since June 2014 as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers reduce output to balance the market. Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Kuwait have already made deeper cuts than required, while Russia has been able ...

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• 23 January

  Saudi inflation drop reflects government fight to tame deficit

    Reuters A plunge in Saudi Arabia’s inflation rate, to its lowest level in more than 10 years, is good news for the kingdom’s efforts to reduce a huge state budget deficit without stifling economic growth. Annual consumer price inflation slowed to 1.7 percent in December from 2.3 percent in November, the Central Department of Statistics reported on Monday. On ...

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