The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

  Reuters Sonatrach boosted natural gas sales to Italy by 140 percent in the first 10 months of the year as Algeria looks to bolster energy exports after years of stagnation, two senior officials from the state company said. More effective exploitation of existing fields and expanded pipe-line capacity is helping boost sales, Sonatrach Deputy General Manager for Marketing Omar ...

  Reuters A version of Shamoon, the destructive computer virus that four years ago crippled tens of thousands of computers at Middle Eastern energy companies, was used two weeks ago to attack computers in Saudi Arabia, according to U.S. security firms. CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks Inc and Symantec Corp. warned of the new attacks on Wednesday. They did not name ...

  Bloomberg Let OPEC celebrate. For now. The oil club is dizzy with its own success after a harmonious meeting in Vienna, where it surprised the world by agreeing to its first production cut in eight years. In hurried notes just hours after the end of the meetings, analysts joined the party. “OPEC resurrection,” Neil Beveridge at Sanford C. Bernstein ...

  An important trial started at the Court of Justice of the European Union, the EU’s top judicial authority. The judges are trying to determine whether Uber is a taxi company or merely a tech platform that enables customers to find drivers, and the decision, which is not likely to come before April, will serve as a precedent for other ...

  The monthly US jobs report for November that will be released on Friday is unlikely to be so bad that the Federal Open Market Committee would upset market expectations and refrain from hiking interest rates in mid-December. Instead, the data are likely to validate what fixed-income markets have already priced in when it comes to short-term interest rates. The ...

  The curse of the rear-view mirror has struck again. The Bank of England’s stress tests of UK banks were the toughest yet, but didn’t model the impact of the Brexit negotiations or a withdrawal from the EU. Rather than bickering over whether such tests are too tough or too lenient, we should be questioning whether the process itself needs ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Petrochemicals companies led Gulf stock markets higher on Thursday in response to OPEC’s first agreement on output cuts to prop up oil prices since 2008 — a deal that could allow governments to ease austerity policies slightly. Expectations for the deal had already boosted oil and Gulf bourses on Wednesday, but the agreement included bigger production ...

  NEW YORK / AP More gains in Goldman Sachs and Chevron helped pull the Dow Jones industrial average to another record high even as other indexes were flat to lower in early trading on Thursday. Ford and General Motors are rising after they announced strong sales in November. Technology companies and companies that pay big dividends are trading lower. ...

  Bloomberg United Continental Holdings Inc. may convert a $12.4 billion order for Airbus Group SE’s largest twin-engine jet to smaller long-range models. It’s also interested in a new Boeing Co. 737 Max that’s still on the drawing board. Those are among the multibillion-dollar changes under consideration as a new management team reviews the Chicago-based carrier’s order portfolio and revamps ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG sought to defuse an escalating pilots strike by offering an improved wage deal as well as a show of humility. The German airline proposed a 4.4 percent raise plus a bonus that will exceed 20,000 euros ($21,200) per pilot on average, dropping a demand for employee concessions on benefits. In a move away from more ...