Oil speculators are buying options contracts that will only pay out if crude drops to as low as $15 a barrel next year, the latest sign some investors expect an even deeper slump in energy prices. The bearish wagers come as OPEC’s effective scrapping of output limits, Iran’s anticipated return to the market and the resilience of production from countries such as Russia raise the prospect of […]
|By Matein Khalid| In retrospect, the last six years were a unique period in global central banking, an epic monetary experiment that averted a Great Depression after Lehman’s failure and interbank/credit contagion plunged the world into recession in 2008-9. Yet the Fed (and later Bank of Japan, ECB and even PBOC) quantitative easing also led to asset bubbles, credit market excesses, currency wars and the mispricing of […]
This time around, the movies are more than serious — they’re nightmare-inducing Why does Hollywood want to punish us? This year’s Oscar aren’t just heavy — it’s a given that the weightiest dramas pop up in theatres when Academy members are preparing their ballots. But this time around, the movies are more than serious. They’re nightmare-inducing. You’ve got a bear trying to eat a man and slow-motion […]
Our father died six years ago, and this year our mother died. As the eldest child, I became responsible overnight for my brother and sister. I’ve never not looked forward to this time of year. The fact that I get to eat my bodyweight in food without feeling an ounce of guilt plays a big part in my high spirits during the lead-up to Christmas. The lights, […]
Almost every Middle Eastern stock index declined after oil, the region’s main source of income, sank to the lowest in seven years, damping the outlook for government spending. Dubai’s DFM General Index ended its longest winning streak in almost three months, sliding 1.5 percent, the most in a week, to close at 3,026.05. Emirates NBD PJSC’s 4 percent retreat was the biggest contributor. The Tadawul All Share […]
Crude slid to the lowest level in more than six years in New York as a rising number of oil rigs in the U.S. signaled the supply glut will be prolonged. Futures dropped as much as 1.9 percent after Baker Hughes Inc. reported that the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. climbed by 17 this week to 541. U.S. crude stockpiles surged to 490.7 million […]
CHINESE SLOWDOWN HAS TO BE MONITORED
By Anjan Roy
At long last the US Federal Reserve – America’s central bank—has raised the interest rates, albeit hardly. This is the first hike in interest rates by the US central bank in over a decade.
The US Fed rate hike has been by a very small margin – from zero to just about 0.25% to 0.5%. It was so gradual and soft that the rate hike did not cause the disruptions in the global financial markets that everyone expected from such a decision.
The first question here is how will it affect India? It should not, and this has been borne out by what happened in the day after the Fed rate hike. The stock market remained more or less flat. The exchange rate also remained stable. The fund managers did not immediately think of taking money out of India and that left the financial markets unruffled.
But then w
Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Thursday called for tougher regulation of the Dubai crude benchmark, the Middle East’s most important oil-pricing mechanism, which has pushed up the region’s prices relative to other grades. “Regrettably, there have been times in recent months where the price of Dubai (crude) was assessed well in excess of the fundamental refining value of other comparable Middle Eastern crudes,” Shell […]
By Nora Chopra
The Congress party is divided on the Congress strategy on the National Herald issue. While Rahul is adamant to go to jail, there are senior leaders who feel that it is not the correct strategy to be adopted at this time. According to a Congress general secretary, this is not the same time and neither is Rahul Gandhi an Indira Gandhi, while she had no charges of corruption against her. There are umpteen charges against the erstwhile UPA government. The Morarji government had been harassing Indira Gandhi. Thus when she went to jail there was a wave of sympathy in her favour. Congress senior leaders claim that Indira Gandhi was a mass leader which Rahul is not. Besides the Congress leaders are extremely concerned about the health of the 90 plus Motilal Vora and also ailing Sonia Gandhi
MAHARASHTRA PCC CHIEF GETTING CLOSE WITH STATE CHIEF MINISTER
Resentment is brewing within the Maharashtra Congress agains
|By Matein Khalid| The plunge in crude oil after OPEC’s Vienna conclave, Dr. Draghi’s failure to resist Bundesbank pressure not to fire another ECB easy money bazooka, Wall Street’s junk bond debacle and an imminent rise in the Fed Funds rate for the first time since 2006 will all shape the next big trades in Planet Forex. The Euro has risen to 1.10 on Draghi’s failure to […]
At the heart of Korea’s Onsan Refinery lies a street called “A.I. Naimi Road,” an homage to Saudi Arabia’s oil minister. The reason: state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. holds a 65 percent stake in the complex. Taking a controlling interest last year in South Korea’s third-largest refinery highlights the shifting dynamics of the oil business. With crude prices down by more than half in the past two […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The fiscal restructuring across GCC, including the introduction of additional taxation, will have serious implications for real estate investments in these countries, according to real estate investment and advisory firm JLL. Fiscal restructuring is already evident in the form of budgetary cuts among GCC countries including the UAE. As governments become more cautious about their finances, there is a likelihood of cuts in […]
As oil crashes through $35 a barrel in New York, some producers are already living with the reality of much lower prices. A mix of Mexican crudes is already valued at less than $28, an 11-year low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Iraq is offering its heaviest variety of oil to buyers in Asia for about $25. In western Canada, some producers are selling for less […]
|By K Raveendran| With the new Public-Private Partnership law having come into being last month, Dubai is set to witness a new phase in its development, as private investments begin to flow into further development of the emirate’s infrastructure. This would mean the private sector directly getting involved in projects like airport expansion, extension of the Dubai Metro and similar infrastructure projects and sharing the risks in […]
Oil declined to the lowest level since 2008 in London amid estimates that OPEC’s decision to scrap production limits will keep the market oversupplied. Brent futures capped the biggest weekly decline in more than a year. The global surplus will persist at least until late 2016 as demand growth slows and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries shows “renewed determination” to maximize production, the International Energy Agency said Friday. […]
It’s been only two months since Google rolled out Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but some Googlers are already hinting at some new features that might arrive with Android N, the next update to the operating system. One of those features might be support for a split-screen to enable easier multi-tasking on tablets. That’s according to a couple of comments made during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on […]
|By Dr Alaa Alghamdi| Dear Mr. Friedman, While I would like nothing better than to thank you for your concern for our youth and our country, as expressed in your Nov. 25 piece in the New York Times, I find I cannot in good conscience do so. You made certain observations during your stay in Riyadh, observations which no doubt may sound fresh and even enlightened to […]
MODI GOVERNMENT HAS TO BOOST SKILL DEVELOPMENT
By K.R. Sudhaman
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced from the ramparts of Red Fort on the Independence Day that the two mantras of his government’s economic strategy would be job creation and to tackle farmers’ woes. In a country, where 10-12 million enter job market every year, no government can ignore this fact and rightly Modi from the day he assumed office in May 2014, has been laying emphasis on job creation. This is all the more important as 65 per cent of the vast 1.25 billion population in the country are below the age of 35.
If India were to cash-in on this demographic dividend, it needed to give a fillip to labour intensive technology, infrastructure and micro, small and medium enterprises. The make-in-India campaign, the digital India coupled with Skill India launched by Modi is aimed at cr
|Arabian Post Special| The relentless plunge in oil price, which analysts are likening to the crash of 1990s, and its serious implications on spending plans are putting the focus back on the Gulf currencies’ dollar peg, including that of the UAE dirham. Despite consistent backing for the dollar peg from all possible channels, including the monetary authorities, the debate is back with a bang. And the market […]
INDIA IS NOT MAKING ENOUGH FOR ITSELF
By Nantoo Banerjee
Notwithstanding the GDP growth projection of 7.5 per cent for the current fiscal, India’s $350-billion export manufacturing is fast shrinking. The export downtrend continued for 11 months in a row toll October. There is no immediate sign of improvement. Making in India does not seem to make much sense at least for Indian exporters at this moment. With export orders shrunk and prices falling in the global market, India’s export manufacturers are in a quandary. The loss of exports during this financial year could be close to $80-90billion. The export earnings could at best reach $270 billion. This could mean a massive loss of production and jobs in the export sector. The country would be lucky if it ends 2015-16 with a 20 per cent loss of export earnings compared to the last year.
Unfortunately, around 4
TURKEY’S LINKS WITH TERROR FUNDS EXPOSED
By Arun Srivastava
French President François Hollande entering into an alliance with the Russian President Vladimir Putin with the objective to build a global military coalition to defeat Islamic State following the Paris attacks has unnerved the USA. This is yet another major setback for the USA. The two leaders agreeing to share intelligence information and cooperate on selecting targets in the fight against ISIS has turned the Obama administration scared of losing its authority and policy of hegemony.
The French president has won public approval and international backing for his handling of the crisis so far. His poll ratings are up by eight points to 33%. Foreign leaders have lined up to express solidarity. For the USA coming together of the leaders does not augur well. So far France has been close to the USA. Fr
OPEC has seemingly dropped any attempt at trying to fulfill its founding mission and manage the global oil market. For Saudi Arabia’s Ali al-Naimi, the most powerful and longest-serving of the group’s oil ministers, it may have seemed like history was repeating itself. There are several striking parallels between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ current situation and the period from 1997 to 1999, when the group lost […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The UAE’s growth in new business was the weakest since April 2012, according to the purchase manager’s index (PMI) data for November. Companies also saw their pricing power diminish while input costs rose further. But competitive pressures meant that charges fell regardless. The UAE’s non-oil private sector expansion strengthened in November, having eased to a two-and-a-half year low during October. Business conditions improved […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Opec’s ability to control the oil market suffered its worst debacle when the organization failed to agree on a ceiling for production. This meant that Saudi Arabia prevailed over other members to continue the policy of excess production as to force non-OPEC players, such as the US and Russia, out of the market by making their output uneconomical. “Lots of people said that […]
