Severstal to sell US steel plants July 21, 2014 RUSSIAN steelmaker Severstal yesterday said it has agreed to sell two US steel plants for $2.325bn (£1.36bn), as it looks to return cash to shareholders and focus on its domestic market. The sale of the Columbus and Dearborn assets – which mainly make steel for the automotive industry – to US rivals Steel Dynamics and [...]
London Report: FTSE falls as tobacco stocks are burned by $23.6bn US fine July 21, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index fell yesterday, with tobacco stocks hit by a multi-billion-dollar fine against RJ Reynolds in the United States and retailers slipping after a profit warning from Tesco. The prospect of further sanctions by the West against Russia over last week’s downing of an airliner over Ukraine also discouraged investors from making big [...]
The sanction spiral: Russia and Europe may fall into recession July 21, 2014 A trade “tit-for-tat” would hit both sides extremely hard EVEN before the tragic Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine last Thursday (allegedly the work of Moscow-backed separatists), Russia was already reeling from the US’s tightening of the screws. The country’s Micex stock index tumbled 2.3 per cent to 1,440.63 last week after news that financial [...]
CNBC Comment: Why instability isn’t spooking markets July 21, 2014 THE BIGGEST point markets are making at the moment is that they aren’t making a big point. Given increased tensions around Russia and Ukraine, we are closer to war in Europe than we have been for a long time. Simultaneously, the death toll in Gaza tragically keeps rising. Yet despite these dominating geopolitical events, involving [...]
Ukraine rebels hand over black boxes from MH17 flight to Malaysian officials July 21, 2014 Pro-Russian militants have handed over the two black boxes from the downed MH17 aircraft to Malaysian officials. After an agreement with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday evening, separatist leader Aleksander Borodai signed them over to the Malaysian experts at a meeting in the eastern Ukranian city of Donetsk. A number of reporters were [...]
Are tougher sanctions the best way to tackle Putin’s Russia? July 21, 2014 Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research (ex Africa) at Standard Bank, says Yes. Sanctions have already had an effect, by preventing a broader Russian incursion into Ukraine. Russia did not expect them, and the measures made it bide time to assess their impact. Crucially, this gave the new Ukrainian government time to regroup, and [...]
Train with bodies from MH17 leaves crash site as all eyes turn to Europe July 21, 2014 A train carrying the bodies from the Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight left the crash site on Monday evening and will be handed over to the Dutch authorities, according to the Malaysian Prime Minister. Prime Minister Najib Razak said that he had reached a deal with pro-Russian rebels controlling the area where the plane was downed [...]
Ukraine challenges Russian media with launch of international news channel Ukraine Today July 21, 2014 An international news channel is being launched in Ukraine to challenge the allegedly pro-Putin narrative of Russian state broadcasters as the two countries continue to place blame on each other for the downing of flight MH17. As the two neighbour states continue their war of words amid growing tensions over the disaster, English-language channel Ukraine Today, run [...]
EU still divided over Russian sanctions following MH17 crash July 21, 2014 On Tuesday, EU leaders will meet in person to discuss possible sanctions on Russia following the crash of flight MH17 into rebel-held territory in the east of Ukraine. Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande have already agreed over the phone that Russia must give investigators and aid [...]
Fresh sanctions expected as West blames Putin’s Russia for MH17 crash July 21, 2014 Western governments yesterday warned that a more severe round of sanctions could be imposed against the Russian government, with heads of state increasingly blaming Moscow for supplying the missile which brought down a Malaysian airlines jet last week. Foreign secretary Philip Hammond, who has held the post for less than a week, said yesterday that [...]