Oil prices are climbing as Opec claims it will deliver further output cuts February 21, 2017 Oil prices have climbed today as Mohammad Barkindo, secretary general of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), said the group and non-members including Russia will boost compliance with agreed oil production curbs. Benchmark Brent crude prices are trading 1.73 per cent higher, or $0.97, at $57.15 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate prices are up [...]
Coup de grace: Are investors misjudging Marine Le Pen’s chances of victory in France’s presidential election? February 21, 2017 "Fool me twice, shame on me,” goes the idiom. Caught out by shock victories for the Leave and Trump campaigns in 2016, investors are determined not to let political risk get the better of them a third time as the French presidential election approaches this spring. Since the beginning of the year, French government bonds [...]
The EU mustn’t shoot itself in the foot – euro clearing thrives in London February 21, 2017 Brexit has presented EU leaders with something of a quandary: should they punish the UK in a bid to preserve their political union, or, in doing so, do they risk shooting themselves in the foot? To put it another way – will they allow politics to trump economics? In the immediate aftermath of last June’s EU [...]
Wellcome Trust set for $100m windfall from Snap IPO as tech firm woos City investors February 20, 2017 The Wellcome Trust is set for a huge windfall from the hottest tech IPO of the year. Snap's public offering, expected next week, will return around $100m (£80.3m) to the science institution following on from successful early bets on Facebook and Alibaba, among others. It comes as the Los Angeles-based startup sought to woo European investors, bringing its IPO [...]
Netflix and Hills: how streaming services are moving in on Hollywood real estate February 20, 2017 | City Talk The Schroders Global Cities Index ranks the fastest growing urban economies in the world. We write about our favourite cities on the Global Cities Blog. With Netflix having just committed to an office spanning 25 acres in Hollywood, we explain why we like LA. Sitting at number six in the Global Cities Index, we rate Los [...]
Fear of Marine Le Pen pushes French government bond yield gap to highest since 2012 February 20, 2017 Renewed fears over the chances of far-right Marine Le Pen winning the French Presidency have pushed the gap between French and German benchmark government bond yields to its widest since 2012. The Franco-German 10-year yield spread widened above 80 basis points on Monday as Le Pen, candidate for the nationalist National Front, continues to benefit in polls. [...]
S&P Global Platts is overhauling its Brent oil benchmark for the first time since 2007 February 20, 2017 S&P Global Platts' Brent oil assessment is set to be revamped for the first time in a decade to address the falling supply underpinning the benchmark that prices most of the world's oil. The oil pricing agency said it will add Norway's Troll crude to the four British and Norwegian crudes it already uses to assess dated [...]
Former BP Russia boss lined up for top nuclear decommissioning role February 19, 2017 David Peattie, the former boss at BP’s Russian operations, is the front runner to take over at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), according to reports in the Sunday Times. Tasked with managing Cumbria’s Sellafield estate, the NDA is a state-owned body that receives £3bn a year in public money, which amounts to 25 per cent [...]
Mongolia agrees terms for $5.5bn IMF-backed loan February 19, 2017 The IMF and its partners have come to an agreement to provide Mongolia with an economic stabilisation package worth $5.5bn (£4.43bn). Rapid growth in Mongolia’s commodities sector had resulted in a fast pace of economic growth, reaching double digit figures between 2011-2013. A sharp decline in commodity prices, plus a fall in foreign direct investment, [...]
Kraft Heinz bid for Unilever adds flavour to London’s end-of-week trading February 17, 2017 Food firm Unilever propped up the FTSE 100 after US competitor Kraft Heinz made a huge $143bn (£115bn) merger offer for the London-listed firm to inject some energy to trading at the end of the week. Unilever’s share price popped by 13.43 per cent as it briefly reached an all-time record high on the news, [...]