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Bloomberg Norway is realising it will have to do without the deep pockets of the biggest oil companies as it seeks to extend an era that has made it one of the world’s richest countries. The most recent blow came when only 11 companies applied for new blocks in the Arctic Barents Sea, touted as the country’s most promising area …

BENGHAZI / Reuters Libya’s Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) is hoping to resolve power problems by the end of March that are keeping production well below potential, its chairman said. In recent weeks, AGOCO’s production has been fluctuating between around 150,000 and 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to an oil source who asked not to be named. Production stood …

Bloomberg An English spa town and two coastal areas saw the biggest house-price increases in the UK in 2017, outstripping gains in London’s hotspots. Cheltenham in southwest England saw a 13 percent jump in prices in 2017, almost five times the national increase of 2.7 percent, Bank of Scotland Plc’s Halifax division said. The average house in the town, famous …

Bloomberg The dollar weakened against most of its G-10 peers, US stocks rose and Treasuries fell in the first official day of trading in 2018. European stocks started the year in the red, failing to capitalise on a positive Asian session as the strength of the region’s common currency weighed on exporters. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index opened higher …

Reuters Stock markets in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar rose as they opened for the first day of trade in 2018, while Saudi Arabia continued to slip after a hike in domestic gasoline prices. The Dubai index had a poor 2017, falling 4.6 percent, but it rose 1.2 percent on Tuesday as stocks in the blue-chip Emaar group, which …

Bloomberg It may be the trickiest job to fill in central banking. And as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York search committee casts a wide net to find a replacement for its outgoing president, William Dudley, the wish list is getting long. Interviews with 10 members of the Fed’s advisory boards, which the committee is consulting, suggest they want …

Bloomberg European bonds slipped on the first day of 2018 trading, led by longer-dated securities after European Central Bank policy maker Benoit Coeure said its current extension of stimulus may be the last. German 30-year bunds led the drop in the euro-area’s debt, followed by the Netherlands and France, while UK gilts also slid. Coeure said that given the region’s …

Bloomberg While volatility in many financial markets has been rising over recent weeks, one notoriously unpredictable currency has been dead in the water. The trading range for Indonesia’s rupiah shrank to the least in two decades last year and volatility all but vanished as the central bank made maintaining the currency’s stability its chief mission. All this in a year …

Bloomberg An ex-UBS Group AG trader banned from the finance industry over allegations that he manipulated Libor rates told a London court that his actions were “mandated” and “sanctioned” by the bank. Arif Hussein, a former head of UBS’s sterling rates desk, is challenging a decision by the Financial Conduct Authority to ban him at a London court hearing on …

Bloomberg For bond investors, Africa was a happy hunting ground last year. Its local-currency and dollar securities easily outperformed those of emerging markets overall as investors piled into a continent offering high yields and starting to recover from the commodity bust of three years ago. But risks abound, among them policy tightening in advanced economies, local and global politics, weakening …