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Russian drones and missiles injure 11, kill 1 in Kyiv
Russian drones, missiles, and explosions caused fires in Kyiv's districts early Saturday morning, according to officials. One person was killed and 11 others injured. This was the second attack in four days on the Ukrainian capital. On Tuesday, seven people were killed when Russian forces fired a barrage with drones and missiles. Tymur Tkachenko said that six locations in Kyiv, a city of three million people, were struck by explosions on Saturday. Apartment buildings and other dwellings were also affected. The military administration reported that the remains of a resident were recovered from the rubble in an apartment building which had been set on fire. The same building was also the site of a child's rescue. Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of the city of Kiev, said that a strike also caused a fire to start in the lower levels of an apartment building west of the centre. A second fire was also quickly put out in the central district. After 5 am (0300 GMT), a new alert was sent out in the capital for drones approaching. Online pictures showed an apartment building on fire, and emergency crews working in the streets and alongside damaged buildings. (Reporting and editing by Ron Popeski, Diane Craft, Tom Hogue and Chris Reese)
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Rosneft, Russia's oil company reports 70% drop in nine-month net profit
Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, reported a 70% drop in net income from January to September, falling by $3.57 billion or 277 billion Russian roubles. The company attributed the decline to high interest rates and cheaper oil, as well as a stronger rouble. Shell and TotalEnergies have seen their quarterly profits fall due to lower oil prices. Rosneft stated that the increased "anti-terror" security was putting additional pressure on its results. The company didn't elaborate on specific security measures. Ukraine has increased drone attacks against Russia's energy infrastructure. Rosneft reported that its revenues dropped 17.8% to 6.29 trillion rubles in the first nine-month period of the year. The high key interest rate of the Bank of Russia continues to negatively impact the profit. Rosneft also said that non-monetary factors and special events had a negative impact on the indicator's dynamic during the reporting period. EBITDA (earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization) decreased by 29.3% for the period to 1.6 trillion Russian roubles.
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Petrobras cost-cutting could affect new wells in the Equatorial Margin Region
Petrobras' CEO stated on Friday that the company could reconsider some of its 15 planned wells in the "Equatorial Margin" because Brent oil prices will likely remain low for the next few years. Petrobras has cut its investment plans for the period 2026-2030 by $500 million up to $2.5 billion. Magda Chambriard, Petrobras' Chief Executive Officer, said at a recent press conference that "we had a large number of wells in the Equatorial margin; some were prioritised, while others were, say, deprioritized based on the Brent crude oil price." She did not specify how many wells would be examined. Petrobras is drilling in an environmentally sensitive region off the coast Amapa, known as Foz do Amazonas. Fernando Melgarejo, the Chief Financial Officer of Petrobras, told journalists that the company's cuts would also affect the extraordinary dividends paid to shareholders. He said the likelihood of distributing extra cash is low in the future. Chambriard stated that despite the cuts, Petrobras will maintain its oil production around 2.6 or 2.7 millions barrels per day up until 2034, after ramping it back up in 2027. Petrobras' new business plan expects it to reach a peak oil production level in five years. Reporting by Fabio Téixeira and Marta Nogueira from Rio de Janeiro, writing by Andre Romani and editing by Kyrry Madry and Paul Simao
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Silver sets new record for silver; gold heads to fourth consecutive monthly gain
Gold spot rose 1% on Friday to a new two-week-high, amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in the coming months. Silver also hit a record high. Gold spot was up by 1.3% at $4,210.94 an ounce as of 03:11 pm EST (20:11 GMT) after hitting its highest price in November 13 earlier this morning. Bullion is expected to rise 5.2% for the month and 3.6% for the week, marking a fourth consecutive increase. Silver reached a new record high at $56.78 an ounce. This is up 6.1% in the session, and 16.6% over the course of the month. After an outage that lasted for several hours at CME, trading in foreign exchange, commodities and futures, including Treasuries, stocks, and Treasuries, resumed around 8 a.m. U.S. Gold Futures for February Delivery settled 1.3% higher, at $4.254.9 an ounce. INVESTORS FOCUS ON FED Bart Melek is global head of commodity strategies at TD Securities. He said that some investors are returning to gold because they believe the Federal Reserve will cut rates. Gold is more likely to perform well when interest rates are low. The recent dovish comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, and New York Fed president John Williams, coupled with the softer economic data after the recent U.S. Government shutdown, has strengthened expectations that central bank rates will be cut next month. The traders now see 87% of a chance that the rate will be cut in December. This is up from 50% just last week. Jim Wyckoff is a senior analyst at Kitco Metals. He said that "the technical charts have become more bullish over the last week or two, which has encouraged chart-based investors to bet on the long side of silver." This week, gold demand in major Asian markets was muted as high prices slowed retail purchases despite the beginning of India's festive season. The removal of the tax exemption for gold purchases in China has slowed consumer demand. Palladium gained 0.8%, to $1450.16, and is set to gain 5.6% for the week. Platinum rose 4%, to $1672.50. (Reporting from Bengaluru by Pablo Sinha; Additional reporting by Sarah Qureshi, Editing by Rod Nickel and Paul Simao; Vijay Kishore).
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Silver sets new record for silver; gold heads to fourth consecutive monthly gain
Gold spot rose 1% on Friday to a new two-week-high, amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in the coming months. Silver also hit a record high. Gold spot was up 1.6% at $4,222 an ounce as of 01:44 pm EST (18.44 GMT), the highest price since 11 November. It was also set to gain 3.9% per week. Bullion is on course to record a 5.5% increase this month and is set for its fourth monthly gain. Silver reached a new record high at $56.52 an ounce. This is a 5.5% increase for the session, and a 16% gain for the entire month. After an outage that lasted for several hours at CME, trading in foreign exchange, commodities and futures, including Treasuries, stocks, and Treasuries, resumed around 8 a.m. U.S. Gold Futures for February Delivery settled 1.3% higher, at $4.254.9 an ounce. INVESTORS ARE FOCUSED UPON THE FED Bart Melek is the global head of commodity strategies at TD Securities. He said that some investors are returning to gold because they believe rates will be cut by the Federal Reserve. Gold is more likely to perform well when interest rates are low. The recent dovish comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, and New York Fed president John Williams, coupled with the softer economic data after the recent U.S. Government shutdown, has strengthened expectations that central bank rates will be cut next month. The traders now see 87% of a chance that the rate will be cut in December. This is up from 50% just last week. Jim Wyckoff is a senior analyst at Kitco Metals. He said that "the technical charts have become more bullish over the last week or two, which has invited chart-based investors to be on the long side of silver." This week, gold demand in major Asian markets was muted as high prices curbed the retail buying of the precious metal despite India's wedding season. The removal of the tax exemption for gold purchases in China has slowed consumer demand. Palladium rose 0.5%, to $1.445.20, and is set to gain 5.2% for the week. Platinum was up 3.2% at $1,659.83. (Reporting from Pablo Sinha, Bengaluru Editing done by Rod Nickel and Paul Simao)
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Adani, an Indian company, wants to invest up to $5 billion in Google's data centers to take part in the AI boom
Adani Group, owned by Alphabet, plans to invest $5 billion into Google's India AI Data Centre Project, an executive revealed on Friday. The company is looking to capitalize on the booming demand in data capacity across the world's largest nation. Google announced in October that it would invest $15 Billion over five years in the state of Andhra Pradesh to build an artificial intelligence data center. This is its largest investment in India. AI demands enormous computing power. This is driving demand for data centres with thousands of chips linked together in clusters. Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh stated that the Google project may mean an investment up to $5 billion in Adani Connex, a joint venture of Adani Enterprises with private data centre operator EdgeConneX. Singh told reporters Friday that "It is not only Google. There are many parties who would like to collaborate with us, particularly when the capacity of our data centres goes up to gigawatts and beyond." Google has committed to investing about $85 billion in expanding data centres capacity this year. Tech companies are investing heavily in infrastructure as they try to meet the demand for AI-based services. The Indian billionaires Mukesh and Gautam Ambani also announced investments to build data centres. The campus of the data centre in Visakhapatnam, a port city, will initially have a power capacity of one gigawatt. $1 = 89.3660 Indian Rupees (Reporting and editing by Kevin Liffey; Harshita Pandya, Dhwani Pandya)
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Silver sets new record for silver; gold heads to fourth consecutive monthly gain
Silver also hit a new record high. Spot gold rose by 1% on Friday to a 2-week high, amid expectations that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in the coming months. By 12:10 pm EST (1710 GMT), spot gold had risen 1.3% to $4210.49 an ounce, its highest price in two weeks. It was also set for a weekly gain of 3.4%. Bullion is on course to record a 5% increase this month and is set for a fourth consecutive monthly rise. Silver reached a new record high of 56.41 dollars per ounce. This is a 5.3% gain for the session, and a 15.2% increase for the month. After an outage that lasted for several hours at CME, trading in the currency platform, as well as futures covering foreign exchange, commodities and Treasuries, resumed around 8:15 a.m. U.S. Gold futures for delivery in February rose by 1%, to $4245.70 an ounce. INVESTORS FOCUSED UPON FED Bart Melek is global head of commodity strategies at TD Securities. He said that some investors are returning to gold because they believe the Federal Reserve will cut rates. Gold does well in environments with low interest rates. Recent dovish comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller, New York Fed president John Williams and softer economic data after the recent U.S. Government shutdown have increased expectations that the central banks will reduce rates next month. The traders now see 87% of a chance that the rate will be cut in December. This is up from 50% just last week. Jim Wyckoff is a senior analyst with Kitco Metals. He said that "the technical charts of silver have become more bullish over the last week or two, which invites chart-based traders to be on the long side in the silver market." The demand for gold was muted across the major Asian markets during this week as high prices discouraged retail purchases despite India's wedding season. The removal of the tax exemption for gold purchases in China has slowed consumer demand. Platinum rose 3.2%, to $1659.02 and was up 10% on the week. Palladium rose 1.3%, to $1456.68, for a gain of 6%. (Reporting from Pablo Sinha, Bengaluru Editing done by Rod Nickel and Paul Simao.)
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Eskom's South Africa sees its annual profit match last year after a strong first half
Eskom, the South African power utility, said that it expects this year's profits to be similar to those of last year. This is after a good first half-year helped by higher rates and lower financing costs. Eskom's profit was 16 billion rands after taxes last year. This is its first profit for a full year in eight years. The profit came after Eskom drastically reduced the number of recurring blackouts, which have been holding back Africa's largest economy for over a decade. A multi-year bailout by the government and a dramatic turnaround in performance at its coal-fired energy stations have been key factors in its financial recovery. Eskom made a profit of 24.3 billion rand (1.4 billion dollars) in the first six months of the current financial year. This coincided with winter months in the Southern Hemisphere, when Eskom sells a lot more electricity and performs less maintenance on its plants. Eskom stated that the results showed that last year's profits were not an isolated event. The average tariff increased by 12.7%, helping to boost revenue to 191.3 billion rand in the six-month period ending September. Due to lower interest rates, and debt levels, net finance costs dropped by 14% to 15,3 billion rand. The amount of money owed to struggling municipalities has increased from 90.1 billion rand in the previous year to 105 billion. Eskom reported that power cuts only occurred on four days during the six-month period covered in its latest results. When power cuts in 2023 reached record levels, outages occurred on more than 300 of the 365 days. Former state monopoly still dominates the electricity market in the country. It generates most of its power through coal-fired facilities, but also has a small number of smaller plants that use diesel or water to produce energy.
What you need to Know about the upcoming Norwegian elections
The general elections in Norway on September 8 and 9 are expected to be close between the centre-left block led by the Labour Party and the centre-right group dominated by the Progress Party. Inequality and taxation are two of the key issues that will determine the vote. The outcome may also have an effect on the energy and power supply to Europe, as well as the management and control of Norway's large sovereign fund.
What's at stake? Labour, led by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, is seeking to extend its reign after returning to government in 2021. This follows eight years of Conservative governments. Labour led a minor government supported by the Socialist Left Party and the rural Centre Party. According to a Respons Analyse survey conducted for the daily Aftenposten between August 7-13, inequality is top of voters' concerns. Defence and national security have dropped to sixth place from a similar survey in April. The campaign has been dominated by cost of living issues and budgetary concerns, with the inflation rate in food prices at 5.9% over the past 12 months. According to the survey, voters also prioritized taxes, the economy and jobs. Labour's allies, however, want to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to fund tax cuts for families with low incomes and expand public services. Both Progress and Conservatives advocate for large tax reductions.
SOVEREIGN FUND Norway’s wealth fund of $2 trillion, based on oil and gas revenues, allows the government to spend more freely than other European countries. However, inflation and interest rate control are factors that limit spending. The debate about investments in Israel was at the forefront of the campaign and sparked a public discussion on how the world's biggest sovereign fund works. Last week, the Socialist Left said that it would support a Labour government only if they divested from companies involved in "Israel's illegal war in Gaza". Labour rejected this demand but it could be hard to reject such demands after the election.
OIL AND GAS
Norway has replaced Gazprom as Europe's largest gas supplier after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Norway's importance is expected to increase as the European Union plans on phase-out Russian gas use by 2027. However, exploitation of new oil and gas resources is crucial to slowing production down.
Depending on the influence of the Greens, Liberals, and other smaller parties, the election may decide whether Norway opens up new areas for oil exploration or if it restricts the companies to the existing ones.
It is unlikely that radical proposals such as stopping exploration altogether will receive enough support.
Norway exports its surplus power to Europe. Some left-wing and rights-wing parties continue to campaign on the issue of limiting exports.
This would cause problems for both the neighbours of Norway and Brussels. Norway may not be a member of the EU, but it is a part of the Single European Market and must follow its rules. Restriction of power exports would be a breach. The parties are divided on how to meet the growing domestic demand, which is eroding Norway’s surplus. In recent years, little new generation capacity has been added. The cost of wind on land, solar, and new hydropower is relatively low, and the construction process is quick. However, there are local protests about their environmental impact. Due to its high cost, offshore wind is controversial.
HOW DOES IT OPERATE? Norway uses a proportional system where 169 legislators are elected for a four-year fixed term from 19 geographic districts. A party that receives more than 4% of the vote nationwide will be guaranteed representation. However, a strong showing within a district can also result in one or several seats. A majority of 85 seats is not expected by any party, so the most likely outcome will be a continuation of minority rule by Labour or a coalition. Nine parties are predicted to gain seats, according to polls. On the left are Labour, the Socialists and the Greens.
Labour's Stoere will remain in power if the centre-left party wins. If it is centre-right, either Progress Party leader Sylvi Listehaug, or Conservative Party chief Erna Solberg, could become Prime Minister.
Results are expected to be known by the end of the ballot on 8 September at 1900 GMT. The results could be revealed late in the evening. However, the final result may not be known for several days. Negotiations after the election will determine which parties form the cabinet.
(source: Reuters)