Archives for May 2017

Russian trade with Iran up 80 percent

While sanctions against Iran have been lifted, banking restrictions on trade in US dollars remain, making it difficult to sell oil on the open market.

“The deal has been concluded. We are just waiting for the implementation from the Russian side. We have no difficulties; we signed the contract, everything is coordinated between the parties. We are waiting for Russian oil companies to send tankers,” he said, as quoted by Russian news agencies RIA and TASS.

The agreement was initially reached in 2014 when Iran was under Western sanctions over its nuclear program.

Russian traders were to participate in the selling of Iranian oil. In exchange, Iran wanted essential goods and technology from Russia.

Russia and Iran discussed energy, electricity, nuclear energy, gas and oil, as well as cooperation in the field of railways, industry, and agriculture.

When the sanctions against Tehran were lifted in 2016, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said the deal was no longer necessary.

Russia to build 2 nuclear power plants in Iran

However, in March 2017, Novak said it was back on the table with Russia buying 100,000 barrels per day from Iran and selling the country $45 billion worth of goods.

Despite the lifting of sanctions, Tehran is still facing problems in re-connecting Iranian banks with global financial markets.

A February report by the International Monetary Fund said that while Iran has been reconnected to SWIFT, significant challenges prevent Iranian banks fully-reconnecting to global banks still exist mostly due to remaining US sanctions.

“US primary sanctions apply to US financial institutions and companies, including their non-US branches (but not their subsidiaries). Moreover, with very limited exceptions, businesses and individuals related to the US continue to be generally prohibited from dealing with Iran, including with the government,” the IMF said.

“US dollar clearing restrictions have not been lifted and pose a significant challenge for non-US banks who may do business with Iran, but may not be paid in US dollars,” it added.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389712-russia-iran-oil-goods/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

OPEC set to extend oil production cuts by 9 months

The main crude benchmarks were trading almost a dollar lower before prices recovered. As of 2:40pm GMT, Brent crude was down 16 cents at $53.80, while US West Texas Intermediate was 23 cents lower at $51.13. 

The cartel and non-member exporters are meeting in Vienna to discuss whether to extend the deal reached in December to jointly slash oil output by 1.8 million barrels per day in the first half of the year.

The extension is likely to be nine months instead of the originally planned six months. The biggest non-OPEC producer asked for 12 months, according to Reuters.

“I think nine months is most likely,” one OPEC delegate said, as quoted by the agency. Four other delegates agreed it was the most probable outcome.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed the extension of the cuts is needed to help the market continue rebalancing and prevent prices from falling below $50 per barrel again.

However, not everyone in Russia is backing the extended accord. The Russian Finance Ministry has issued a warning that cutting production could provoke the second wave of shale oil revolution in the United States, Vedomosti daily reports.

The deal will temporarily reduce what is on offer to the market, but the difference will be compensated by US shale oil, which will only lead to oversupply in the future. As a result, oil prices would drop to $30 per barrel, warns the Finance Ministry in an article called Zugzwang.

Zugzwang is a situation found in chess and other games where one player is put at a disadvantage because they must make a move when they would prefer to pass and not move.

According to the ministry, oil prices slightly above $40 per barrel but without US shale would help the market to rebalance faster.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389671-opec-output-cut-prices/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Gold prices will continue to climb due to geopolitical tensions – analysts

When people buy gold or silver to protect themselves against the devaluation of America’s paper currency, they frequently end up with a “gain” when exchanging the metal back into dollars.

However, this is not necessarily a real gain, regarding purchasing power. This “gain” is often nominal because of the slow but steady devaluation of the dollar. The government nevertheless assesses it as a gain for tax purposes.

The bill, called House Bill 2014, was introduced by Republican Mark Finchem who insisted that taxing exchanges of “legal tender” like gold coins is a tax on money.

China claims discovery of its largest gold mine with $22 billion potential

“As transmitted the bill provides for the tax-neutral treatment of a very limited class of collectibles, using narrowly defined language,” Ducey said in a written statement. He and his predecessor Jan Brewer have vetoed three similar bills.

It is a major win, say gold proponents.

“Every supporter of free markets should cheer Arizona’s passage of HB 2014. There is no more justification for forcing individuals to use government created money than there is for forcing them to drive government manufactured cars. In fact, as the Federal Reserve’s 114 years of failure shows, giving monopoly control over our money supply to a secretive central bank is the most dangerous form of government intervention,” said Ron Paul, former Congressman from Texas and Campaign for Liberty Chairman.

“By allowing the people of Arizona to use an alternative to Federal Reserve-created fiat currency, HB 2014 will help the people of Arizona survive the next Federal Reserve-created recessions. Passage of this bill will also help make Arizona more attractive to the growing number of people seeking alternatives to fiat money in order to protect themselves, their families, and their business from the effects of Federal Reserve policy. Thus, this bill will help attract new investments and jobs to Arizona,” he said.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389589-gold-coins-arizona-tax/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Samsung heads for best quarterly profit in over 3 yrs, up 48%

A total of 380 million smartphones were shipped worldwide between January and March, compared with 348.2 million during the same period in 2016.

Samsung was the world’s top smartphone maker with a 23 percent market share. Its shipments fell 2.5 million units to 78.7 million.

Apple’s unit shipments were up during the period, reaching 52 million. However, its market share shrank from 14.8 percent to 13.7 percent.

According to the research, Apple is increasingly facing fierce competition from Chinese brands. Its performance in the market is “under attack,” said Gartner.

China-based smartphone makers Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo, which rounded out the top five, all saw double-digit growth, collectively carving out almost a quarter of global sales.

Huawei’s shipments grew from 28.9 million last year to 34.2 million in 2017 while the company’s market share rose from 8.3 percent to nine percent. The Chinese company is also under pressure from domestic upstarts, the report said.

Chinese tech firm to take on leading global smartphone makers

The Chinese smartphone maker Oppo had the strongest year-over-year growth, with shipments nearly doubling from 15.9 million last year to 30.9 million this year. Its market share grew to 8.1 percent in the first quarter.

Another Chinese brand, Vivo, holds fifth place with a 6.8 percent market share and 25.8 million smartphone shipments. Last year, Vivo’s market share stood at four percent on 14 million unit shipments.

“Vivo saw growing demand for its smartphones from the emerging markets in Asia/Pacific, including India, where sales grew over 220 percent thanks to its increased brand appeal,” said Gartner.

The research firm found that smartphone buyers willingly spend more to get a better device, which is pushing up the average selling price.

It said Android continues to be the dominant mobile operating system with an 86.1 percent market share, up from an 84.1 percent share in the first quarter of 2016.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389585-smartphones-market-growth-share/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Alibaba founder teaches six classes over three days a year with the course reportedly costing 100,000 yuan ($14.500).

Alibaba’s Jack Ma reclaims title as China’s richest man

Ma, a former English teacher has been a long-time fan of martial arts. The billionaire has reportedly been practicing tai chi quan since 1988.

Earlier this month, Jack Ma joined the debate on a defeat of a tai chi master by a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter.

The two styles cannot be compared as they operate by different rules, according to the billionaire. Ma stressed that most tai chi practitioners perform the art for exercise, not for real combat.

“Tai chi was invented neither for attack nor defense, but as a movement to illustrate its philosophy. Attack and defense are part of tai chi, but definitely not all of it,” Ma wrote on his account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website.

In 2013, Alibaba CEO in cooperation with a Chinese actor Jet Li launched Taiji Zen Online Academy to promote the martial art and associated meditation techniques.

Jack Ma says that tai chi and tai chi quan are different, as the former represents a philosophy and the latter is the martial art itself.

“Tai chi is about how you balance and how you work,” he previously said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“Tai chi is like ‘you fight there and I’ll go over here. You’re at the top, and I’ll go down’. It’s a balance. You are heavy and I’m small. When I’m small, I can jump. You’re heavy. You cannot jump. Tai chi is about a philosophy. I use tai chi philosophy in the business. Calm down. There’s always a way out and keep yourself balanced,” Ma said.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389553-jack-ma-taiji-philosophy-course/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

China’s economy grows 6.9% in Q1, strongest since late 2015

It estimated that while the government budget deficit in 2016 was “moderate” at around three percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the debt burden would rise toward 40 percent of GDP by 2018 and 45 percent by the end of the decade.

Senior vice president for Moody’s sovereign rating group, Marie Diron told CNBC the catalyst for the downgrade was a combination of factors, including expectations that potential growth would fall to five percent by the end of the decade.

“Official growth targets are also moving down, but probably more slowly. So the economy is increasingly reliant on policy stimulus,” she said.

In a statement on its website, China’s Finance Ministry said the downgrade was “absolutely groundless” and based on an “inappropriate method.” It added Moody’s was overestimating the difficulties China’s economy faces while underestimating the government’s efforts to tackle structural reforms and overcapacity.

Moody’s cuts China’s credit rating outlook to negative

Despite the downgrade, Moody’s shifted to a stable outlook for China, from negative, citing balanced risks. Last year it lowered the outlook to negative from stable, pointing to rising debt, falling currency reserves and uncertainty over the authorities’ ability to carry out reforms.

“The stable outlook reflects our assessment that, at the A1 rating level, risks are balanced,” Moody’s said in the statement Wednesday. “The erosion in China’s credit profile will be gradual and, we expect, eventually contained as reforms deepen…”

It added the government’s control of much of the economy, the financial system and cross-border capital flows offer the ability to maintain stability in the near term.

SP currently rates China’s foreign and local currency long-term debt at AA- with a negative outlook. Fitch places an A+ rating on both foreign and local currency long-term debt with a stable outlook.

In contrast, China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating puts an AA+ level on China’s sovereign debt in local currency terms and AAA in foreign currency terms, which is the highest level.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389542-moodys-downgrades-china-rating/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Fitzpatrick served as chief executive of the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank for almost 20 years before taking up the position of chairman from 2005 until 2008. He resigned amid emerging details of secret loans he had taken out with the bank.

On Tuesday Judge John Aylmer at Dublin Circuit Court in Ireland acquitted Fitzpatrick of 27 charges of misleading the bank’s auditors and furnishing false information about multi-million euro loans to him and to people connected to him between 2002 and 2007.

‘Leprechaun’ Max Keiser trolls ‘gold-stealing’ Irish banker (VIDEO)

The judge strongly criticized the investigation by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) in his ruling, the Irish Times reports.

Aylmer said the ODCE fell short of the “impartial, unbiased investigation that an accused is entitled to,” he was cited as saying by RTE. He added that key witnesses had been coached and the ODCE had failed to seek out evidence of innocence as well as guilt.

He accused the office, which has the mandate to investigate allegations of breaches of company law, of making assumptions about Fitzpatrick.

The judge also expressed concern that material shredded by the ODCE’s chief investigator during Mr Fitzpatrick’s first trial may have been material that could have assisted the defense.

During the trial the prosecution argued that multi-million euro loans taken out by Fitzpatrick and his family were “artificially reduced” by short term loans from other sources for a period of two weeks around the bank’s financial end-of-year statement.

The prosecution alleged that he failed to disclose the extent of these loans to the bank’s auditors in the years 2002 to 2007. FitzPatrick denied all charges.

In 2014, he was found not guilty of 10 counts of providing unlawful financial assistance to a group of investors dubbed the ‘Maple 10’ to buy shares in the bank in July 2008.

Judge Aylmer’s decision was made on the 126th day of the trial – making it the longest criminal trial in the history of the Irish state. The jury is due to return to court tomorrow morning but will be directed by the judge to acquit Fitzpatrick.

Speaking outside court, Fitzpatrick told RTE “it was a long and tiring and difficult time” for him and his family. He thanked his legal team and expressed appreciation to the “media’s restraint in this current trial.”

In 2008 the Irish state issued a blanket €440 billion guarantee of all liabilities in the crippled  banking system. Fitzpatrick refused to apologize to the Irish taxpayer who was forced to foot the bailout bill, blaming the global recession for the circumstances. Anglo Irish was nationalized in 2009.

Max Keiser, host of the ‘Keiser Report,’ previously dubbed Fitzpatrick along with other key figures in the Irish banking collapse “financial terrorists.”

“The people in Ireland are getting hammered by these financial terrorists,” he said.

“We have to expand the Patriot Act, and other financial statutes around the world, to cover financial terrorism.

“To cover Seán Fitzpatrick, because clearly he qualifies. Ireland should recognise that they’ve been victimised by a terrorist attack, and need to respond accordingly,” he told The Journal ahead of a visit to Ireland in 2011.

Jonathan Sugarman, the former Unicredit bank executive who reported liquidity breaches during his first few weeks at Unicredit Ireland, has led criticism of the court decision Tuesday. Sugarman says he repeatedly warned the Financial Regulator that the Irish banking system was facing a liquidity crisis before the financial crash.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389467-banker-fraud-acquitted-ireland/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Fat cats awarded £5.5mn pay rise in 2015… while average UK pay languishes at £26.5k

According to the research, over the last five years, median CEO pay has jumped by 19.6 percent, not accounting for inflation. That’s nearly double the 10.9 percent rise in the average weekly paycheck for full-time employees across the country.

It also found compensation dropped for nine of the ten companies scoring the lowest on “Say on Pay” votes, where shareholders have the right to vote on the remuneration of executives.

“It’s all out of whack right now,” Heather Slavkin Corzo, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment told AP, adding CEOs for major US companies make 347 times more than the average worker.

Compensation experts say boards of directors know they have to pay CEOs similar to what their rivals are making, if not more.

The highest paid executive, according to the survey, was Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications whose compensation totaled $98 million. The company absorbed Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year to become the second-largest cable operator in the US.

Leslie Moonves at television network CBS was the second highest paid CEO. He made $68.6 million, including $63.9 million in bonus and stock awards.

​Median US CEO Pay tops $10 Million in 2013 – study

Number three was Walt Disney’s Robert Iger who made $41 million. His payment was six percent less than the year before, as slowing growth resulted in a bonus cut.

The fourth highest paid executive was David Zaslav of Discovery Communications, whose networks include TLC and Animal Planet. Zaslav’s compensation was $37.2 million while roughly 70 percent of that was from stock and option awards.

The compensation of Robert Kotick from Activision Blizzard surged 358 percent to $33.1 million in 2016. The pay jump came almost entirely due to $24.9 million in stock awards he received as part of a new five-year employment agreement. This year his salary was cut by 26 percent to $1.8 million after many shareholders said they were upset about how much Activision Blizzard executives were making.

The study included pay data for 346 executives at SP 500 companies who have served two full consecutive fiscal years at their respective companies.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389428-ceos-biggest-payment-raise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Trump wants to sell US oil reserves drill in Alaska

On Monday, OPEC’s de-facto leader Saudi Arabia gained support from the second largest producer in the cartel, Iraq. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said he expects no objection from other members.

“The Saudi oil minister’s view seems accurate and no serious objection is expected if at all,” one delegate told Reuters, asking not to be identified as he is not allowed to speak to the media.

“No surprises,” said a second delegate.

The updated agreement can see new countries, including major non-OPEC producer Norway.

”Falih has talked to several countries including Norway, including Turkmenistan, including Egypt, and they have made signs of their willingness to join the collaboration,” Kuwait’s oil minister Essam al-Marzouq said on Tuesday.

Last December, OPEC, Russia and other major producers agreed to curb production by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) for six months from January 1 to support the market and push prices to $60 per barrel.

The deal helped to prop up oil prices above $50 per barrel, giving a fiscal boost to major producers. However, the efforts by OPEC and Russia were undermined by growth in the US shale industry, which is not taking part in the deal.

Oil prices were slightly down on Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump proposed to sell half of the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the next 10 years and begin drilling in the Arctic.

Brent crude was trading at $53.83 per barrel, while the US Texas Intermediate was trading at $51.11, both losing three cents, but close to their monthly highs.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389416-oil-opec-output-cut/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Boeing plans 4,500 job cuts as competition with Airbus gets hotter

Boeing and Canada are in talks over the purchase of 18 Super Hornet fighters this year or in early 2018.

Last week the US Commerce Department started investigating Boeing’s claims the Canadian plane maker dumped CSeries jetliners on the US market below cost.

Bombardier’s 110-130 seat CSeries is aimed at the regional jet market, and the company sees North America as by far the largest single market for its jets.

In its petition, Boeing said Bombardier, determined to win a key order from Delta Air Lines, had offered its planes to the airline at an “absurdly low” $19.6 million each.

According to Boeing, the sum is well below what it described as the aircraft’s production cost of $33.2 million. Bombardier has rejected the allegation.

Following the investigation, the Canadian government suggested it could scrap plans to buy Boeing fighter jets if a United States court ruled against Bombardier.

READ MORE: New Russian airliner set to take on Airbus and Boeing

Some analysts accuse Boeing of carelessly putting at risk billions of dollars of defense work or pandering to growing protectionism.

Others say decades after Boeing failed to prevent European upstart Airbus from gaining momentum with early sales victories in the United States. The company could now see a second rival entering its domestic market if it underestimates the threat again.

New Russian airliner set to take on Airbus and Boeing

They add that the strategic importance of defending Boeing’s core passenger jet business outweighs the diplomatic storm.

“It’s a crucial entry market,” said a person familiar with Boeing’s strategy in taking on Bombardier. “This is the case Boeing might have brought against Airbus 40 years ago. Not taking action at the start led to consequences.”

Boeing is currently before the World Trade Organization with a long-running dispute with Airbus, accusing the company of benefiting from similar “unfair” government subsidies.

Bombardier is “taking a page out of the Airbus strategy book” by trying to muscle into the US market with cut-rate pricing, Boeing said in the petition.

Analysts say the disagreement between Boeing and Bombardier could worsen already strained US-Canadian trade relations.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/389381-boeing-bombardier-extreme-measures/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS