|By Lawrie Williams| As we come up to the Easter holiday and trading gets thin, the opportunities for traders to manipulate precious metals prices up or down become easier and for the moment, those who would like to see prices lower are in the ascendant. Whether gold goes into freefall and loses all its gains achieved so far this year is the big question on gold investors’ lips. […]
|By Matein Khalid| I was surprised by the dovishness of the Federal Reserve’s FOMC policy statement last week given the white hot US labour market and metrics of wage inflation. Hence the $29 rally in gold, the plunge in the Volatility Index to 15, the fall in the US dollar and the surge in oil/mining shares. The Yellen Fed is still worried about deflation risk in China, Europe […]
At least one person was killed and several injured after two explosions occurred in the departure hall of Zaventem Airport in Brussels Tuesday morning. Gunfire was also reported. Shortly after, explosions were heard at Brussels train station, staff told the AFP. The airport was evacuated and all flights were suspended. Flights arriving at the airport were diverted. The incident occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of […]
Even as it pumps near-record quantities of oil, Saudi Arabia is getting ready for a time when the world will no longer need its biggest export. The world’s largest crude exporter is focusing on renewable-energy sources such as solar power in preparation for a post-oil global economy, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said at a conference in Berlin on Thursday. Still, he doesn’t expect that era to dawn […]
|By Lawrence Williams| The most recent call by Goldman Sachs to once again sell gold short has not, so far been a good move by the investment bank, and it comments in its latest research that it is down 5% on the call – with a stop loss indicated at 7%. But, it also reiterates that it remains confident in its bearish viewpoint and that it still stands […]
|By Arabain Post Staff| Bank Sarasin-Alpen Middle East Limited, defending the region’s biggest financial mis-selling case has lost the first appeals against the record judgement of $70 million penalty awarded by the Court of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Bank Sarasin and its DIFC subsidiary Sarasin-Alpin had filed an appeal against the liability finding which led to record damages being awarded against them. The liability appeal […]
|By Matein Khalid| It is no coincidence that the most profitable hotels on the planet are located in Makkah, the holiest city of Islam as the site of the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba. For fifteen centuries, Muslims have traveled to Makkah from all over the world for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, making the city the highest source of inbound foreign visitors in Saudi Arabia. Makkah is […]
Consumers who like doing a little armchair R&D will soon get their chance, thanks to a new initiative from Sony. The electronics giant has established what it’s calling the Future Lab Program to help the company employ user feedback to refine and improve new products. The newfangled research and development effort has the goal of releasing concept prototypes that will eventually evolve in an open, creative environment […]
/By Nitten Nair/Being in between jobs is one of the most stressful periods one can face irrespective of whatever stage one is in the career. For the junior levels, it can lead to doubt in one’s capabilities and the feeling of being on the back foot at the early stages of a career. Mid to senior levels are concerned about having a break in their career and […]
|By K Raveendran| With the VAT announcement already having been made, the next landmark decision business circles are keenly watching out for is the establishment of the UAE Federal Tax Authority. The new authority or department is expected to be entrusted with the task of implementing and collecting various taxes, including the proposed corporate taxes. In June last year, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) had outlined in […]
|By Matein Khalid| Six data points last week reinforce my conviction that the GCC’s property/credit market stress will only accelerate in 2016. One, Standard and Poors downgraded Saudi Arabia’s sovereign credit rating to A- while Bahrain and Oman are now both below investment grade. The new sovereign credit downgrade cycle in the GCC comes at a time when sukuk/debt new issuance volumes have plummeted by 50%, the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The need to part-finance funding gaps by the GCC countries through sovereign US dollar debt will complicate their efforts to refinance the bonds and loans maturing this year and the next, HSBC warned in a report on the GCC finances. Some $94 billion in foreign currency denominated bonds and syndicated loans by GCC countries are maturing this year or the next year, which […]
|By K Raveendran| A clear assessment of the impact of the introduction of value added tax (VAT) in the UAE is not available yet, but it is fairly clear that it will have serious adverse results for the retail industry, which is already suffering a dip in demand. Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al Tayer announced the other day after a joint press conference […]
|By Matein Khalid| The sultanate of Oman has enjoyed phenomenal economic development success in the 45 year reign of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Modern Oman is one of the true social, political and economic success stories of the Arab world. However, the Achilles heel of the Omani economy is its huge dependence on oil and gas export earnings, 60% of the sultanate’s GDP. Standard and […]
/By Arabian Post Staff/ Standard & Poor’s has re-affirmed its view that Saudi riyal peg to the dollar, a subject currently topping market debate, is unlikely to be changed over the next few years. The rating agency’s rationale is that at a time of already significant change and regional geopolitical instability, politically conservative regimes such as those in the GCC are unlikely to increase uncertainty about their […]
|By Matein Khalid| The global credit cycle has an immediate impact on the UAE via oil prices, the US dollar peg, cross border bank credit flows, Federal Reserve monetary policy and world trade. The IMF has cut its 2016 growth forecast to 2.6%, the lowest since 2010. A leading developer just booked a 20 fold rise in penalties from walkaway offplan home buyers. Banks hire “loan rangers” […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Ajman-based Tech Group, comprising a number of construction verticals, announced an investment of $100 million for the next three years, in what the company declares as an endorsement of the positive outlook for the country’s construction industry. Piling Tech, one of the group companies specializing in foundation engineering, design engineering and boring and driven piling systems, has acquired a new set of Soilmec […]
Crude oil surged the most in seven years, rebounding from the lowest in more than a decade as equities rallied. Volatility jumped. Futures rose 12 percent in New York and 11 percent in London. U.S. stocks halted a five-day slide that dragged global equities into a bear market. Producers are ready to work together and won’t make cuts unless there’s complete cooperation, United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Suhail […]
By Nitten Nair/We are taught from a very young age to have career goals and to “aim” to be at the top of our chosen field before we decide to call it a day. I am sure many of you would have been asked the question, “Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?” This profound question sows the seeds of having a career goal […]
The yearlong decline in global equities that started with a selloff in energy became a full-blown bear market Thursday as a rout in bank shares extended losses in the broadest worldwide gauge past 20 percent. The MSCI All-Country World Index slipped 1.3 percent, pushing its decline since May to 20 percent and marking the biggest retreat from risk since Europe’s sovereign debt crisis in 2011. Every industry […]
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is no believer in gold’s rally, predicting losses over the coming year as the Federal Reserve increases U.S. interest rates no fewer than three times. Futures dropped. “Our economics team forecasts that the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points three times this calendar year, to 1.3 percent,” analysts including Jeffrey Currie and Max Layton wrote in a report received on Tuesday, […]
Three days after a report indicated that Twitter might soon introduce an algorithm-driven timeline, fans of the microblogging site are continuing to tweet their complaints using the hashtag #RIPTwitter. The outpouring of commentary in the wake of Friday’s report in BuzzFeed prompted CEO Jack Dorsey (pictured above) to respond with two tweets of his own on Saturday. In one, he noted that Twitter “never planned to reorder […]
Almost 10,000 Department of Homeland Security employees awoke this morning to find that their personal information had been stolen from the agency’s servers and leaked on the Internet. For his next trick, the same hacker said he’ll release the personal details of 20,000 FBI staff members. The information in the data dump includes names, job titles, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. The attacker targeted not only DHS […]
Gold and its miners’ stocks are rocketing higher as speculators and investors alike return to this left-for-dead sector. This sudden deluge of capital inflows has crowned gold stocks the best-performing sector of this young new year by far, shocking traders. And this stunning reversal of fortunes in both the metal and the companies producing it is only starting, so it’s exceedingly important to understand what’s going on. […]
