November, 2016

• 15 November

  China finally boosts prices, only too well

    By December 2015, China had endured four years of declining producer prices. Coal was down 38 percent on the year, and steel down 31 percent. That month, the Communist Party hit on a new plan for reversing this dynamic. They called it “supply-side reform,” and it was widely perceived as an attempt to eliminate the surplus capacity at mines ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  UAE has a big role to play in 4IR

    The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will shape the world’s future. It has already dawned on us. The UAE is joining the World Economic Forum (WEF) to lead from the front as it ushers in the 4IR and gives fillip to technological advancements. While setting up the world’s first permanent policy council that will study and implement the plans of ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  Why Putin sacrificed his economy minister

  

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has been rather consistent lately in making it clear that senior officials were not immune from corruption charges. Yet Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev’s arrest in the wee hours of Tuesday still stands out. It raises questions about the future of Putin’s highly professional, technocratic economic team as well as one of the president’s closest associates, ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  The world’s bond vigilantes are back in the saddle

    Pity the poor pension fund manager. Toward the end of October, there was finally a chance to add some yield to a European fixed-income portfolio by lending money to Austria for 70 years at a yield of 1.53 percent. The sale raised 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion); it could have fetched more than six times as much, given the ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  Clinton may have lost, but women still won

  

    There will be the temptation to see Hillary Clinton’s defeat as evidence that a woman can’t rise to the top. If we’re not careful, the dominant gender will whisper in the backroom, let’s not nominate one of them again. But it will happen, nonetheless —and thanks to Clinton. Just seeing her win her party’s nomination and triumph in three ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  Saudi, Egypt continue pull-back, MSCI index affects UAE, Qatar

  

    Reuters Stock markets in Saudi Arabia and Egypt continued pulling back on Tuesday after big rallies earlier this month, while some individual stocks in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar moved sharply after MSCI adjusted its indexes. The Saudi index, which had jumped 22 percent between mid-October and Sunday before profit-taking began on Monday, dropped 2.1 percent to 6,493 ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  European equities push higher

    London / AFP Europe’s main stock markets forged higher on Tuesday as investors reacted to a surprise dip in British inflation and shrugged off slower-than-expected German economic growth. Britain’s annual inflation rate eased to 0.9 percent in October compared with 1.0 percent a month earlier, despite a Brexit-triggered slump in the pound lifting imported raw material costs for British ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  OPEC to start final diplomatic push on oil-cuts plan

  

    CAIRO / Reuters OPEC nations embarked on a final diplomatic effort to secure a deal on oil cuts, with Qatar, Algeria and Venezuela leading the push to overcome the divide between the group’s biggest producers, according to a delegate familiar with the talks. The behind-the-scenes diplomacy comes after bilateral meetings over the weekend failed to resolve the rifts, leaving ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  Oil rebounds from 8-week low

  

  Bloomberg Oil rebounded from the lowest close in eight weeks as OPEC nations were said to be making a final diplomatic effort toward securing a deal to curb production and stabilize prices. Futures rose as much as 2.6 percent in New York after falling 4.3 percent the previous three sessions. Qatar, Algeria and Venezuela are leading the push to finalize ...

  Read More »
• 15 November

  BP CEO sees oil market ‘pessimistic’ about OPEC cuts

    Bloomberg The oil market is “pretty pessimistic” about OPEC reaching a deal to cut production, BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said. Oil prices will probably stay around current levels if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries fails to implement the deal it reached in Algiers in September to limit output, Dudley said in an interview on Bloomberg ...

  Read More »