Markets riled after Saudi Arabia launches airstrikes in Yemen March 26, 2015 Tensions in the Middle East stirred global markets today pushing nervous investors into safe-haven assets. Investors sought safety in gold, pushing bullion prices up to a two-and-a-half week high of $1,219.40 an ounce, on news that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies had launched air strikes in the Yemen city of Aden. Meanwhile, the dollar fell [...]
Shell to cut 250 North Sea oil jobs as oil prices plummet March 26, 2015 Oil giant Shell has said it will shed around 300 North Sea oil and gas jobs as part of a cost management drive. "The North Sea has been a challenging operating environment for some time," Paul Goodfellow, Shell's upstream vice president for the UK and Ireland at, said. "Reforms to the fiscal regime announced in the budget [...]
US magnate warns oil prices could hit $100 by the end of 2016 March 25, 2015 Oil prices could return to as much as $100 a barrel by the end of next year, a US oil magnate warned yesterday. "I think you could very well be at $100 a barrel by the end of 2016," Boone Pickens, chair of the hedge fund BP Capital, said during a speech at the Commonwealth Club [...]
Supermarket price war and drops in oil prices drag UK inflation down to zero March 24, 2015 Hard-pressed households gained a reprieve in the past year – prices held flat in the 12 months to February, official figures showed yesterday. Economists now believe deflation is just around the corner, as falling fuel and food prices keep easing the pressure on family budgets. It is the first time inflation has fallen to zero [...]
Wall St drops on dollar fears – New York Report March 24, 2015 US stocks fell for a second session yesterday, with equities keeping a tight range that corresponded with currency fluctuations as traders focused on the dollar’s strength and its possible effect on corporate earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 104.9 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 18,011.14, the S&P 500 lost 12.92 points, or 0.61 [...]
Food and oil prices drag the UK towards CPI deflation March 22, 2015 Could this be the week the UK officially goes into deflation? Office for National Statistics figures out this Tuesday are expected to show that UK Consumer Price Index (CPI) prices dropped 0.1 per cent in February, after hitting record lows of 0.3 per cent last month. Behind the possible entry into deflation is a drop [...]
Oil prices jump while dollar gets hammered after Fed statement March 18, 2015 Oil prices jumped as much as six per cent higher while the dollar experienced its biggest single-day decline in six years after the Federal Reserve's policy statement on interest rates. The benchmark Brent Crude closed at $55.91 a barrel, up $2.40 or 4.5 per cent when it had earlier fallen as low as $42.03 after [...]
Brent oil falls below $53 on oversupply concerns March 18, 2015 Oil prices have been on a slippery slope since a brief rally at the start of this year, and it just got even greasier, after industry data out of the US fuelled oversupply concerns. Brent crude, which is the international benchmark, was trading down 0.9 per cent at $53 dollars per barrel today. Western Texas Intermediate, [...]
Falling oil prices have caused hundreds of job losses at Nexen in the UK and US March 18, 2015 Tumbling oil prices have resulted in job losses at the US and UK branches of Chinese energy firm Nexen Energy. The company announced plans to cut 400 jobs in the US and UK this morning. Broken down, 340 employees will be lost from the North American operation in Calgary, while 60 jobs will be lost [...]
WTI crude oil hits six-year low price falls despite Opec production forecast March 16, 2015 Brent crude oil prices fell 1.32 per cent to $53.95 a barrel today, even though a statement by oil cartel Opec suggested growth in supply could begin to dwindle. Meanwhile, WTI crude slumped to $44.30, a new six-year low for the benchmark. In just over a week, its price has fallen by nearly $10. The [...]