Wednesday , 17 December 2025

Equinor profit rises as oil, gas output tops prediction

Bloomberg Norway’s Equinor ASA beat profit and cash-flow estimates after pumping more oil and gas than predicted. First-quarter results at the state-controlled producer cap a mixed series of earnings for the major oil companies as the industry turns a page on the 2014-2017 downturn. Supermajors BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc met or exceeded estimates thanks to trading gains …

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India mulls solar tender with a focus on factories

Bloomberg India is considering a new tender to develop solar power equipment manufacturing that doesn’t include a requirement to also generate electricity, a move aimed at sparking investor interest, according to people with knowledge of the plan. In addition to separating manufacturing of solar cells and modules from generation, the government may also offer some form of financial aid. There …

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Green New Deal could help utilities

Bloomberg An industry that didn’t exactly champion the rise of renewables may be a surprising beneficiary of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal: utilities. The plan pressed by the freshman congresswoman from the Bronx aims to rid America’s power grids of carbon emissions. That could help speed up existing trends in the sector, including coal retirements and the increasing deployment of …

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Stocks decline as trade concerns linger; oil dips

Bloomberg US equity-index futures extended declines on Tuesday alongside stocks in Europe as the gloom surrounding the outlook for global trade refused to dissipate. The dollar gained and Treasury yields were steady. Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 all retreated as China’s top trade negotiator prepares to visit Washington this week to salvage a …

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Pound traders upbeat on outlook for Brexit

Bloomberg Pound traders are more upbeat on the outlook for Brexit as the government and opposition Labour party hold a crunch meeting to try and reach a deal. One-week risk reversals on the pound-dollar pair, a measure of market positioning, signal investors are the most optimistic on the pound in almost five months. There is only around a one-in-three chance …

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Bitcoin bounds towards $6,000

Bloomberg Bitcoin climbed to a fresh 2019 high, approaching the $6,000 level for the first time since November. The largest digital coin advanced as much as 4.7 percent to $5,961, before paring its gain to 3.4 percent in New York, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Most of the other highly traded tokens were mixed, lagging Bitcoin. The world’s most-followed cryptocurrency …

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Fed escalates warnings on perils of risky company debt

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve escalated its warnings about the perils of risky borrowing by businesses, saying firms with the worst credit profiles are the ones taking on more and more debt. The Fed also left a question unanswered: Is it going to do anything about it? The US central bank’s latest financial stability report said leveraged-lending issuance grew 20 percent …

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US banks hold on to riskier credit-card loans despite losses

Bloomberg More US consumers are defaulting on their credit cards, but banks may be holding onto the riskiest loans instead of passing them off to investors, according to a report from Barclays Plc. The credit card loans that banks bundle into bonds and sell to investors are outperforming the loans that lenders have held onto, Barclays analyst Alin Florea wrote …

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Singapore studying possibility of providing licenses to virtual banks

Bloomberg Singapore is discussing the possibility of allowing virtual banks to operate in the city state, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Tuesday. “MAS is studying whether to admit such digital-only banks with non-bank parentage,” the financial regulator said in an emailed reply to questions from Bloomberg News. “We have been engaging relevant stakeholders to ascertain the unique value …

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UBS bulks up China unit with senior hires

Bloomberg UBS Group AG is beefing up the ranks of senior executives at its securities joint venture in China after taking majority control late last year, hiring five managing directors for the investment banking business, said a person with knowledge of the matter. Shen Dehua, most recently investment banking head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s Qianhai securities venture, joined UBS Securities …

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