Bloomberg A potential deal between Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil and petrochemical giants could enable the country’s sovereign wealth fund to raise billions of dollars. Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, is considering buying a strategic stake in the Sabic petrochemical group, Aramco said in a statement, adding that the talks were at a “very early stage.†The Public Investment ...
Read More »Saudi says it will not oversupply global oil market
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia rejected concerns that it’s planning to oversupply global oil markets and said it will actually trim crude exports next month. The kingdom bolstered production by the most in three years last month, pumping almost 10.5 million barrels a day. Yet it signalled that it won’t go any further for now, saying exports this month will be “roughly ...
Read More »Goldman puts a grim number on solar slump for this year
Bloomberg Anyone following clean energy knew this could be a tough year for solar. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. just put a grim number on how bad. The pace of global installations will contract by 24 percent in 2018, Goldman analysts said in research note. That’s far more dire than 3 percent decline forecast by Bloomberg NEF in the bleakest of ...
Read More »Uranium tariffs may raise cost of fuel for N-plants
Bloomberg The Trump administration’s decision to consider tariffs on uranium imports may raise the cost of fuel for nuclear reactors and undermine a separate initiative to shore up struggling electricity generators. The Commerce Department said it will probe whether uranium imports “threaten to impair†national security. US miners Energy Fuels Inc and Ur-Energy Inc, which requested the probe in January, ...
Read More »Israel launches air attacks in Gaza following soldier’s death
Bloomberg Israel’s air force carried out strikes against Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip after Palestinian snipers shot and killed an Israeli soldier at the border, amid warnings that the conflict was sliding towards war. Hamas, the group that rules the Gaza Strip, said that four of its members were killed in the air strikes. The Israel Defense Forces said ...
Read More »India’s Modi defeats no-confidence vote as widely expected
Bloomberg PM Narendra Modi defeated a no-confidence vote in India’s parliament after a day of raucous debate in which opposition parties assailed the ruling party’s record. As expected, Modi was able to defeat the opposition-led motion by a vote of 325 to 126 with his Bharatiya Janata Party’s majority in the lower house of parliament. Before the motion was put to ...
Read More »Trump tries to change the subject as Russia fallout rattles GOP
Bloomberg President Donald Trump is changing the subject — but it’s not clear how easily Republicans in Congress will be able to move on. After days of backlash over his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump sought refuge in the populism that won him office. He threatened China with more tariffs, accused the European Union of currency manipulation and ...
Read More »â€˜Chequers summit riven by cabinet divisions’
Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Chequers summit to reach agreement with her cabinet on a plan for leaving the European Union (EU) was marked by stark divisions on the best way to proceed, two newspapers said. Andrea Leadsom, the leader of Parliament’s lower house, told ministers that she “hated†May’s proposal to retain many of the UK’s economic links ...
Read More »Ramaphosa wins as allies secure top posts in ANC
Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa boosted his control over the ruling African National Congress(ANC) ahead of next year’s elections as his allies secured key party posts in the central Gauteng province and a divided leadership was elected in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal region, a stronghold of his predecessor Jacob Zuma. Premier David Makhura was elected unopposed as the ANC’s provincial ...
Read More »SoftBank-backed Mapbox targets self-driving cars
Bloomberg Mapbox Inc., backed by SoftBank Group Corp., says it has a role to play in Masayoshi Son’s vision for ride-hailing and autonomous cars. The provider of mapping data for Tinder, Evernote and Facebook Inc. in October raised $164 million in a funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund. The infusion was aimed at helping Mapbox go beyond maps ...
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