Saudi Aramco To Pump $7 Bln Into Biggest Petchem Investment In South Korea

2022-11-17 | Commodities , Current Affairs , Forex , Securities

SEOUL, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) plans a $7-billion investment at a South Korean affiliate’s factory in the port city of Ulsan to turn out more high-value petrochemical products, the company said on Thursday.

The project, named Shaheen, is the Saudi firm’s biggest investment in the Asian nation to develop one of the world’s largest refinery-integrated petrochemical steam crackers, Aramco said in a statement.

Full coverage: REUTERS

Chip Stocks Hammered In Asia, Dollar Firms On Hawkish Fed

TOKYO, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Chip stocks took a beating on Thursday, sending most Asian share indexes lower, after grim signals from Micron Technology overnight about excess inventories and sluggish demand.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar rebounded after stronger-than-expected U.S. retail sales suggested the Federal Reserve was unlikely to ease up in its battle with inflation.

That fuelled concerns about the economic outlook, with the U.S. Treasury yield curve remaining deeply inverted in Tokyo trading and suggesting that investors are braced for recession.

Full coverage: REUTERS

Morning Bid: Good Is Bad? Depends On Who Or What You Are

SYDNEY, Nov 17 (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole.

Good is bad again – or vice versa – as markets worry upbeat U.S. retail sales will lead to higher interest rates for longer.

Some of the better-than-expected performance was likely due to rising prices, but Walmart’s success suggests discounting was driving volumes and might be disinflationary.

Anyway, sales ex autos and gas were up a solid 0.9% and the control group for GDP up 0.7%. That pushed the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow to 4.4%, implying the economy is speeding up not slowing down. What’s bad for Wall Street might be good for everyone else.

Full coverage: REUTERS

U.N. Publishes Draft COP27 Climate Deal

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 17 (Reuters) – The U.N. climate agency published a first draft on Thursday of what could be the over-arching agreement from the COP27 climate summit.

The document, labelled a “non-paper” indicating it is still far from the final version, repeats the goal from last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact to “to accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Full coverage: REUTERS

Oil Falls On Easing Geopolitical Tensions, China Demand Worries

SINGAPORE, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Oil prices extended declines on Thursday as concerns over geopolitical tensions eased, while rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in China added to demand worries in the world’s largest crude importer.

Brent crude futures fell by $1.04, or 1.1%, to $91.82 a barrel by 0430 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid $1.17, or 1.4%, to $84.42 a barrel.

On Wednesday Brent dropped by 1.1% and WTI 1.5% after Russian oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary restarted.

Full coverage: REUTERS

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2025-01-13 | Current Affairs

Dollar Surge Pressures Global Currencies Amid Fed Uncertainty

The U.S. dollar climbed sharply on Monday, reaching multi-year highs against other currencies after an unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs report highlighted the resilience of the American economy

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2025-01-10 | Current Affairs

Musk Urges State AGs to Facilitate OpenAI Stake Auction

Musk’s lawyer submitted a letter requesting the states to ensure an open bidding process to safeguard public interest as OpenAI move away from nonprofit control

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2025-01-09 | Current Affairs

Global Stocks Struggle Amid Rising Treasury Yields and Tariff Concerns

TODAY’S NEWS The ongoing selloff in global bonds intensified on Wednesday, weighing on Wall Street stocks and bolstering the dollar as robust U.S. economic data lowered hopes for imminent aggressive interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to a peak of 4.73%, the highest since April 2024, before settling […]