1 Saudi lowers oil price, may not cut output (Khaleej
Times) Saudi Arabia cut pricing for January oil sales to the US before the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets to decide on production
targets.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co lowered its official selling
price for all crude grades to the US. In Asia, the discount for its Arab Light
against a regional benchmark will be $1.40 a barrel, compared with $1.30 in
December. It was expected to be widened by 25 cents, according to the median
estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
"They are offering their crude oil at a lower
price to the two most important markets, the US and Asia, two days before the
Opec meeting," a clear sign the Saudis aren't going to pull back output,
said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc
in New York.
Brent crude, a global benchmark, has slumped about
40 per cent in the past year as Saudi Arabia, Russia and the US boosted output.
Opec decided in November last year and again in June to keep its production
target unchanged, after exceeding its target of 30 million barrels a day in
each month since June 2014.
Saudi Arabia boosted output to a record 10.48
million barrels a day in June, according to the International Energy Agency,
and pumped 10.33 million barrels daily last month. Middle Eastern producers are
competing increasingly with cargoes from Latin America, North Africa and Russia
for buyers in Asia.
2 UK foreign investment at 10-year low (BBC) UK
firms cut their foreign investment by the largest amount in a decade last year,
official figures have shown. British firms clawed back a net £79.9bn worth of
overseas investments in 2014. That compared with a £28.4bn increase in overseas
investments by UK firms a year earlier. Foreign firms also scaled back their
investments in the UK.
It is the first time UK companies have reduced net
foreign direct investment in more than a decade, the Office for National
Statistics (ONS) said. Overall, the amount of money invested overseas by UK
companies fell to £1.15trn in 2014 from £1.25trn in 2013. Foreign companies cut
their direct investment into the UK to £27.8bn in 2014 from £33bn in 2013.
The figures come after state visits to the UK by the
leaders of two of the fastest-growing economies in the world - Chinese
President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - during which a
number of trade deals were announced.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) warned that the
figures showed the UK could no longer rely on its investments abroad to
compensate for "weak export performance", given the falling global
demand.
Commodity prices have fallen sharply in the last
year amid fears that the Chinese economy, the world's second-largest, is
slowing down too rapidly. This slowdown has reduced demand for metals and oil
and contributed to deflation in the UK and the eurozone. Allie Renison, head of
trade policy at the IoD, said some UK manufacturing firms were already selling
off assets and facilities abroad and bringing production back to the UK.
3 World needs jobs not giveaways, says Carlos Slim
(The Guardian) The Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has said he will not give
away his family’s shares to charity like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg
has announced he will donate 99% of his Facebook shares, currently worth about
$45bn, to a new philanthropic project he will run with his wife.
When asked if he planned to give away his family’s
shares in his companies to his foundations, Slim said no, while adding that his
charitable projects did not have budget limits. Slim, whose companies include
the telco America Movil, has given his foundations multi-billion dollar
endowments but he did not name a figure for how much money he has donated.
“We see projects and results, we are not counting
chillies,” he said. “Foundations do not solve poverty,” he said, saying that
employment was the key to eradicating poverty. “Employment requires that
companies invest, so we don’t need to give away companies, we need to create
companies.”
Slim, speaking at an event in Mexico City, said
Zuckerberg’s plan was “very good” but governments already had the resources to
address poverty and education issues. “It’s a problem of management and
efficiency,” he said.
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