The United States on Tuesday adopted a harder line toward Egypt’s military-backed government, stressing that its bloody crackdown on protesters could influence U.S. aid to Cairo but denying reports that it has suspended the assistance. The army’s clampdown on supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi over the past week, the “suspicious deaths” of 37 prisoners in custody and the detention of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie […]
NEW DELHI—As India’s economy shifted into low gear earlier this year, sales at the country’s largest car manufacturer also lost steam, falling nearly 7% in the second quarter from a year earlier. Now the auto maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., faces trouble on a new front: the rapid drop in the Indian currency. The rupee has slumped nearly 3% against the dollar since last Wednesday and roughly […]
QATAR: Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) have shown that Qatar would be near the top of the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) if adjustments were made for the country’s large population of migrant workers. The HDI was developed to measure the overall wellbeing of a nation and is often used as a means of comparing countries. It is calculated using three variables: […]
India’s biggest stock-market swings in 16 months are poised to continue, boosting options prices as the prospect of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus spurs further weakness in the rupee, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. The CNX Nifty index has retreated 10 percent during the past month and the gauge’s 30-day historical volatility reached 21.1 yesterday, the highest level since April 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. […]
(Reuters) – In his full-throated cry of support for the Egyptian authorities, Saudi King Abdullah on Friday described street protests by the Muslim Brotherhood as representing “terrorism and sedition”. That stark view of a crisis that has killed hundreds in the past week shows why the world’s top oil exporter will continue to back Egypt’s crackdown on the Brotherhood even while its Western allies try to convince […]
Airports in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) experience local disruptions – such as those that stem from fog – which, annually, affect over 200 flights and 30,000 passengers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone. In addition, according to Oxford Economics, disruptions from the 2010 spread of Icelandic volcanic ash over European airspace had a $253 million net impact on the aviation sector in the Middle East […]
A.P. Moeller-Maersk, owner of the world’s biggest shipping line, said concern that emerging markets are losing their growth momentum is overdone. “The underlying story is very good,” Maersk Chief Executive Officer Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in an interview on Aug. 16. “Our expectation remains that the U.S. will be the key driver of growth, but we’re also relatively optimistic on emerging markets. There is growth potential, even […]
(Reuters) – India’s currency cartwheeled to historic lows on Monday while markets in Indonesia took a spill, evidence of how rising U.S. yields are making it harder for emerging nations to fund their current account deficits. The turbulence heightened investor caution ahead of Wednesday’s minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting, with many fearing they might only add to the confusion about when it might scale […]
RIYADH – Healthcare spending in Saudi Arabia is expected to grow by 10.3 percent this year to SR98 billion over 2012’s SR88.9 billion. The Saudi government has announced that major projects involving healthcare, along with other key sectors such as education, will get additional funding and strong governmental focus in the coming months. At the same time, the Kingdom’s IT expenditure is projected to increase by around […]
By Parag Deulgaonkar Emirates 24/7 A post on a social networking site by an ‘unknown’ developer launching a new project in Downtown Dubai has led to over 40 real estate brokerage firms scrambling to get details. And that’s not just it. A few brokers claim in their response to the post that they even have investors ready to buy the project off plan. Though the developer name is […]
Merrill Lynch & Co., the 99-year-old firm known for its “thundering herd” of brokers pitching stocks to Main Street, may cease to exist as a legal entity more than four years after being acquired by Bank of America Corp. While Bank of America will keep the Merrill Lynch brand for its retail brokerage and investment bank, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company plans to dissolve the subsidiary as […]
AMMAN — Representatives of IT companies in Jordan said they will be forced to move their headquarters out of the Kingdom if a proposed income tax law is endorsed. They said the increase in electricity prices this week and the government’s intention to increase IT companies’ income tax from 14 per cent to 25 per cent will be “disastrous”, making Jordan no longer an ICT hub. “The […]
Gold traders are the most bullish in five months on signs that demand for coins and jewelry increased during a plunge in prices that prompted billionaire investor John Paulson to cut his holding for the first time since 2011. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to rise next week, four were bearish and five neutral, the highest proportion of bulls since March 8. Consumer buying of […]
The commodities sector looks set for a relatively benign near-term future according to Saxo Bank, the multi-asset trading and investment specialist. Gold and silver should see a mild recovery over the next quarter and oil looks set to remain at current levels, struggling to push past previous highs. Any expectation that WTI crude will re-establish its historical premium over Brent looks improbable. Saxo Bank believes that changing […]
Global investors have become significantly more confident in the outlook for growth, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for August. A net 72 percent of respondents now expect the world’s economy to pick up over the next 12 months – the survey’s strongest reading on this measure in nearly four years and a striking rise from July’s net 52 percent. Investors remain concerned over […]
NEW DELHI – India, the world’s biggest buyer of gold, raised duties Tuesday on bullion imports for the third time this year as it battles to narrow a record trade gap and stabilize the rupee. The government increased the customs duty on gold to a record 10 percent from eight percent as it strives to break the country’s love affair with the precious metal. The announcement boosted […]
By Cristiane Lucchesi – Aug 14, 2013 (Bloomberg) Mubadala Development Co., the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund, is in talks to buy some of the assets of former Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista for about $1 billion, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The negotiations are for stakes in oil producer OGX Petroleo (OGXP3) & Gas Participacoes SA, MMX Mineracao & Metalicos SA and LLX Logistica […]
(Reuters) – The Dubai arm of Australian contractor Leighton Holdings is seeking more than 1 billion dirhams ($272 million) from a prominent member of Qatar’s royal family in compensation for late payments on a hotel project in the Qatari capital. Dubai-based Al Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) said it had launched a series of suits against Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim al-Thani’s Al Faisal Holding in relation to the […]
Two Gulf Arab borrowers have attracted heavy investor demand for international bond sales in the past two weeks, but higher yield premiums are prompting many other potential issuers in the region to seek alternative funding sources. In the case of Saudi Arabia, companies that might have issued bonds in the international market may now choose to issue in the country’s liquid riyal-denominated bond market. In May, a […]
BEIJING/MOSCOW (Reuters) – China’s biggest energy firm PetroChina will join Exxon Mobil in developing Iraq’s giant West Qurna oilfield and is in talks with Lukoil to buy into a second project at the field, industry sources said on Friday. China is already the top foreign player in Iraq’s southern oilfields and a deal at West Qurna would boost its dominance and could make PetroChina the biggest single […]
For today’s marketers, online channels present a vast array of new opportunity – as well as the potential for costly distraction. New and emerging platforms — such as social and mobile channels — continue to evolve the online landscape of consumer engagement. As a result, success metrics and economics can change quarterly depending upon customer adoption curves. Marketers can, and should, choose from a broad menu of […]
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — In a world where financial rescues dominate headlines, U.S. government bond funds played hero yet again, rescuing portfolios in a tough second quarter. Sound familiar? Analysts have been pegging the end of the decades-long (and surely stretched?) Treasury rally ad nauseam. But Europe’s festering credit crisis, weakening Chinese economic growth, and a bumpy U.S. recovery combine to pressure the Federal Reserve and its counterparts […]
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Russell Wasendorf Sr was arrested on Friday after allegedly stealing more than $100 million from clients of his now-bankrupt brokerage PFGBest, using little more than a rented P.O. Box, Photoshop and inkjet printers to dupe regulators for decades. In the dramatic conclusion to a week-long drama that has shaken trader confidence in the trillion-dollar U.S. futures markets, FBI agents arrested Wasendorf, 64, at the […]
Before you jump into the markets, take the time to learn from the missteps of novice investors. Here are three common first-time investing mistakes. Not having a plan A common mistake among first-time investors is that they lack a solid plan that will carry them through good and bad times, says Mark Holder, chief investment officer at Oklahoma-based portfolio management firm Stone Fox Capital Advisors. Failing to […]
