Fitch Ratings-Moscow-22 February 2017 Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of five UAE banks with Stable Outlook and maintained Rating Watch Positive (RWP) on First Gulf Bank’s (FGB) IDRs. The agency also downgraded the Viability Rating of Union National Bank (UNB) to ‘bbb-‘ from ‘bbb’. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this commentary. KEY RATING DRIVERS IDRs, SUPPORT […]
Submitted by Chris Hamilton via Econimica blog, I’m dazed & confused…economists and the consensus all acknowledge 2001 and 2007 were low interest rate, debt driven financial and economic bubbles. However, somehow today’s even lower interest rate environment resulting in an additional $9.5 trillion in equity valuation from the last bubble peak…this one is legit and isn’t a bubble??? What I’m even more confused about is who, exactly, is buying all the […]
Political uncertainty is slowing trade growth, a World Bank report has concluded, indicating that the rise of Donald Trump may already be casting a shadow over the global economy. Major international institutions such as the IMF, the OECD and World Bank have recently upgraded their forecasts of global economic growth largely due to expectations that tax cuts, rising infrastructure spending and a wave of deregulation will boost the […]
Wednesday 12:45 GMT Overview US equity futures suggest Wall Street will dip from record levels that were reached amid a positive outlook for economic growth. Political concerns leave the euro carrying the wooden spoon in the forex markets, while the rush for supposed havens pushes short term German bond yields to their lowest ever. Hot topic The FTSE All-World equity index is at another record, up 0.1 […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil traders from around the world, including the United States, Britain and Brazil, have tripled their sales to Asia as they take advantage of an emerging supply gap following OPEC-led production cuts announced late last year. Around 30 supertankers have this month made long-haul trips to ship crude oil from the Americas, the North Sea and the Mediterranean to refineries across […]
Paul Polman thought it was just going to be an informal catch-up. But it quickly became clear that Alexandre Behring, chairman of Kraft Heinz, had something very specific on his mind when he visited Unilever’s art deco headquarters in London last month. Had Mr Polman, chief executive of Unilever since 2009, ever considered a collaboration with Kraft Heinz, Mr Behring wanted to know. Mr Polman took this […]
Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat), one of the world’s largest shippers of liquefied natural gas, reported a 2.9 percent fall in annual net profit on Monday. Nakilat’s 2016 profit amounted to 955 million riyals ($262 million) versus 984 million riyals a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, profit fell to 207 million riyals from 226 million riyals a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations; QNB Financial Services […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Saudi Arabian Oil Co may offer discounted shares of its record breaking IPO to Saudi nationals, Bloomberg reported quoting sources. It said the company has discussed methods to structure the sale so that retail investors in Saudi Arabia can buy shares for less than those buying on international exchanges. Aramco, as the company is known, is considering listing venues in the U.S., U.K. […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for February 22, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Film screening Cinema […]
Rising angst over the outcome of France’s presidential election sent the premium investors are demanding to own French debt instead of German bonds to a new post-eurozone crisis high. The gap between the yield on 10-year French debt and German equivalent bonds exceeded 0.81 percentage points for the first time since August 2012, as a fresh poll showing far right candidate Marine Le Pen is on course […]
Creditors of Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittefaq Steel Products, the country’s largest private sector steel manufacturer, have provisionally agreed to a 6.2 billion riyals ($1.7 billion) debt restructuring, banking sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The terms of the deal have still not been finalised but banks have reached an agreement in principle to give the company a two year window in which it would only pay interest on […]
U.S. stocks rose to fresh record highs on Tuesday, boosted by strong earnings reports from Wal-Mart and Home Depot and continued optimism about the economic agenda of President Donald Trump. Wal-Mart’s (WMT.N) shares were the top gainer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rising 3 percent after the world’s largest retailer reported higher-than-expected U.S. sales. Home Depot (HD.N) shares gained 1.4 percent after the home improvement retailer […]
The International Monetary Fund’s description of Greek debt as potentially explosive has left negotiators in Brussels struggling to bridge the differences between Athens and its creditors before time runs out to avert default. With creditors unwilling to release the next tranche of bailout money needed to keep the country afloat, Greece is facing €7bn of debt redemptions in July that it cannot afford. Investors appear to have […]
European markets regulators are examining a potential loophole in share-trading rules, which they fear promotes lightly regulated, private networks rather than placing curbs on trade away from public exchanges. Concern is mounting that the rules, which take effect from next January, could be exploited by some banks and high-frequency traders (HTF), to sidestep policymakers’ determination to make share trading more transparent. In an effort to improve trading […]
Ecuador will have to wait until later this week for the result of Sunday’s presidential election after the country’s electoral council deemed the vote too close to call following a knife-edge poll. It was the first time in recent memory that the winner has not been declared on election night. Lenín Boltaire Moreno, the leftwing protégé of President Rafael Correa, is in touching distance of the 40 […]
At least 180 Chinese listed companies will be forced to cancel or scale back planned rights offerings worth $97bn in response to regulations that target excessive fundraising used for dubious acquisitions and financial speculation. The rules come as Chinese regulators are increasingly concerned about the trend of “exit the real, enter the fake” — a phrase used to denote companies abandoning real economic activity in favour of […]
By Michael O’Boyle and Ana Isabel Martinez | MEXICO CITY MEXICO CITY Mexico’s central bank faces difficult decisions as it balances a spike in inflation against an expected economic slowdown, Deputy Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said on Monday. “We are in an especially complex environment,” Diaz de Leon told Reuters in an interview. Diaz de Leon pointed to the heightened risk of inflation from a weak […]
Success for banks selling large blocks of stock in the European market this year points to a supportive environment for new listings in the months ahead, bankers say. There have been 70 such accelerated offerings so far this year according to Dealogic, worth €11.3bn, more than double the €5.5bn sold in the same period a year ago when anxiety about the state of China’s economy prompted much […]
HONG KONG Asian stocks held near 1-1/2-year highs in subdued early trade on Tuesday as a holiday in the United States left investors with few catalysts, while the euro nursed overnight losses as lingering concerns about the looming French election rattled its bonds. Political concerns have been at the front and center of investors’ minds over the past week or so, with markets wary about the outcome […]
With US stocks in record territory and the S&P 500 index the most richly valued in more than a decade, some investors see dark clouds gathering on the horizon. The S&P 500, a broad measure of the stock prices of America’s largest companies, ended last week at a record high and has risen almost 10 per cent since the election of Donald Trump as president in November. […]
The quaint cobblestone streets of the historic Gastown district of Vancouver belie its status as a fast-growing technology hub. Drawing on links with nearby Seattle, and San Francisco further south, a tech boom in Canada’s third-largest city has pulled in tens of thousands of skilled workers and start-up entrepreneurs in recent years, sparking a fierce fight for the limited supply of office space. Now the commercial centre […]
As the world’s oil traders descend on London this week, the hot subject will be how to keep North Sea Brent, the benchmark for the global oil price, fit for purpose. S&P Global Platts , the oil pricing agency, is trying to execute the biggest overhaul of North Sea oil trading in a decade, with plans to rejig how prices in the region are set ahead of […]
Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com, I am unsure who first came up with the idea of taxing robots, but the proposal has been embraced by academia, socialists, and in general, the radical Left. Today, entrepreneur Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, endorsed the idea. What does Gates want to do with the money collected? Here’s the answer: Flush it down the toilet. In a Quartz interview, Bill […]
Some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds are increasingly striking their own private equity deals rather than relying on external fund managers, in a drive to cut costs and gain more control. With some $6.5 trillion in assets, sovereign investors already account for 19 percent of capital committed to private equity, according to data from research firm Preqin. But mega-funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment […]
