Finance news

Sanctioned Private Chinese Refiner Seeks Non-Iranian Crude

Hengli Petrochemical, the privately-owned Chinese refiner that was sanctioned by the U.S. in April over allegedly buying Iranian oil, is looking to buy crude from other Middle Eastern producers and West Africa, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing trade sources. Hengli Petrochemical, one of China's largest independent refiners which operates a refinery in Dalian with the capacity to process 400,000 barrels per day of crude, was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreig

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia

Hacking of Philippine Senate’s website spotlights widening political crisis

The Philippine Senate’s political crisis has spilled into cyberspace after its official website went offline on Thursday following its defacement with a warning accusing lawmakers of betraying public trust. “The people deserve truth. The people deserve accountability. The people deserve better. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect Us,” the message said, using a closing phrase long associated with the global hacktivist collective Anonymous. The incident comes as the Senate remains locked..

Price pressure: US producer prices are climbing again – a stronger-than-expected increase of 1.1 percent

The rise in oil prices has caused US producer prices to rise surprisingly sharply. Companies are under increasing cost pressure. Consumers could soon also feel the consequences.

Energy: TotalEnergies wants to hand over the wind farm concession in Heligoland

TotalEnergies recently denied plans to return a wind farm project. The company is now looking for ways to withdraw from the concession – and is demanding compensation.

Fury over Jared Kushner’s Albania resort project threatens to engulf political elite

As protests in Tirana extend into a second week, they have escalated from opposition to two €5 billion (US$5.7 billion) planned resorts in ecologically sensitive areas linked to Jared Kushner into demands for the entire Albanian political establishment to step aside. Anger erupted on the coast on May 30 when bulldozers moved into one of the sites, spreading to the capital two days later. Every evening at 6pm since then, thousands of people have been gathering in a central square and marching...

◇ unclassifiedmiddle-east · usa

Dangote Refinery Seeks to Raise $1B in Private Debt Sale

Nigerian tycoon Aliko Dangote's refinery unit is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion through a private sale of debt, people with knowledge of the plan said.

◇ unclassifiedmiddle-east · usa

Alberta Says It's Talking with Fortune 500 Co to Finance Pipeline

'We've had one particular discussion with a proponent, actually a Fortune 500 company, in very general terms about financing the entire project and building the entire project', Alberta's energy minister Brian Jean said.

33d06/11⚠ shipping-routes · 2/5

Another Gulf Producer Joins Dark-Mode Tanker Traffic Through Hormuz

Kuwait appears to have joined a growing bunch of Middle Eastern oil and gas producers that have moved to ship energy cargoes in dark mode through the Strait of Hormuz. The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier Gas Umm Al Rowaisat, which is owned by the national Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, has passed through the Strait in recent days, then transferred the cargo onto another ship which is currently en route to an Indian port, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed on Thursday. The Gas

Bundestag debate: Miersch to Weidel: “How deeply do you have to hate people?”

The co-chair of the AfD parliamentary group has sharply criticized the federal government's reform plans in the social sector. The SPD parliamentary group leader then declared that it was “unbearable” how Weidel was playing population groups off against each other.

Consequences of the Middle East war: ECB expects more inflation and less growth due to war

The fighting in the Middle East is putting pressure on companies and consumers. The European Central Bank is less confident about the euro area economy.

Social◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe

Spending a lot of money on air travel is about the stupidest thing you can do financially.

A little rant for you: I'm invited to a wedding, only my closest friends, but overseas, the flight has to be booked myself. No problem, fly with Emirates via Dubai 2x6h flights there and the same back. Just for fun, I compared the prices for the different classes (total price, the cheapest without Flex): Economy: EUR 880 Premium Economy: EUR 1,860 Business: EUR 3,876 First: EUR 10,017 Completely bananas. Now the flight fans will probably think I don't have an A

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · russia

France's blind spots: Lafarge, TotalEnergies and deals with dubious partners

The Lafarge case shows how far French companies went in crisis and sanction countries. Total's Russia business suggests this is not an isolated case. A guest post.

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · uk

Great Britain: Crisis in London: Starmer's defense minister resigns in dispute over spending

There is already a lot of criticism of Keir Starmer's Labor government. Now the Prime Minister is also losing his Defense Minister because he gets less money than he wanted for the military.

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · iran

Development of oil prices: Oil prices are surprisingly stable despite escalation in the Middle East

Escalation in the Iran conflict: oil prices high. Relaxation: oil prices down. Why this mechanism is increasingly no longer effective.

33d06/11⚠ shipping-routes · 2/5

India Secures Crude Supply Through August with Higher UAE Imports

Indian refiners have secured crude supply at least through August as they boost purchases from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Africa, and Brazil, trade sources told Reuters on Thursday. India's state-run refiners have been lifting growing volumes of both crude and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the main cooking fuel in the country, from the UAE after India last month signed a strategic agreement with Abu Dhabi's national oil company ADNOC for crude and LPG supply. ADNOC is offering crude from F

33d06/11⚠ war-conflict · 2/5

Confusion regarding IPOs, Stock market and valuations.

A lot of the AI companies and SpaceX are coming into the market with insane valuations and IPOs. Space X is being valued i read at 1.75 T. Alphabet(google) is raising capital and we have Anthropic and OpenAI which would be hundreds of billions of dollars as well. IMO, that capital can only really come from two places: New capital entering the market Capital rotating out of existing stocks First one is tough. Inflation is still a major issue in a lot of countries, unemployment seems to be rising,

Social◇ unclassifiedsocial-signal

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia · europe

Equipment failure fixed after causing delays along Tseung Kwan O MTR line

MTR services along Hong Kong’s Tseung Kwan O line have gradually resumed, about an hour after a signalling equipment failure caused travel delays of 10 to 15 minutes during the Thursday evening rush hour. “The signalling equipment fault near Po Lam station on the Tseung Kwan O line has been fixed. Normal train service is gradually resuming,” the MTR Corporation said on its mobile app. “The service was affected between 5.57pm and 7.11pm.” A commuter, who gave her surname as Kwok, said she had...

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · usa

USA: Trump irritates with statements about inflation and oil

US inflation rose to over four percent in May - the US President responded to this by saying “I love inflation”. He also claimed that the US had transported “millions of barrels of oil” through the Strait of Hormuz unnoticed.

Do not let US-China ties spiral out of control, ex-Treasury chief Paulson warns

Former US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson has urged Washington and Beijing to manage their escalating strategic competition to prevent it spiralling into broader conflict, warning that deepening distrust now poses a greater risk than trade imbalances. The US-China relationship was “the most consequential” in the world, requiring careful stewardship as rivalry sharpened across trade, technology and security, he said. “We have to be careful that the decoupling does not become...

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · uk

Auto industry: BYD pauses factory in Turkey and looks for location in southern Europe

The Chinese car manufacturer is starting production in Hungary and wants to build 70 percent of the cars sold in Europe there. This would make BYD immune to punitive tariffs.

◇ unclassifiedmiddle-east · usa · europe

USA Commercial Crude Oil Stocks Down Over 7MM Barrels WoW

Crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 426.5 million barrels on June 5, the EIA's latest weekly petroleum status report showed.

Malaysia’s hunt for Russian oil tests Anwar’s ‘friends with all’ policy

Malaysia’s search for alternative crude supplies is complicating Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s “friends with all” foreign policy, analysts have said, with the country potentially tapping Russian oil despite Western sanctions against Moscow. On Thursday, oil prices rose again after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, 103 days after the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28. Washington has signalled it wants sanction waivers over Russian oil to end “as soon as possible”. Economy...

33d06/11⚠ war-conflict · 4/5

Oil Could Hit $150 If U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Collapses

Oil prices could hit $150 per barrel if hostilities between the United States and Iran escalate further from the current, most testing period in the ceasefire, according to intelligence firm Rystad Energy. Renewed hostilities would further deepen the supply shut-ins in the Middle East as the war risk and the near-closed Strait of Hormuz continue to pressure upstream production, the Norway-based energy research company said. “At this stage, it is too early to say whether the current escalation ma

Has Beijing given up on a nuclear weapon-free Korean peninsula?

China might be downplaying nuclear weapons by not mentioning the issue after Xi Jinping’s visit to North Korea but that does not mean it has accepted its neighbour’s growing arsenal, according to analysts. Neither Beijing nor Pyongyang mentioned nuclear weapons or denuclearisation in their statements on the Chinese president’s two-day state visit to Pyongyang this week. Since Xi’s summit with US President Donald Trump in May, observers have been speculating that Beijing’s stance on Pyongyang’s..

◇ unclassifiedgermany · europe · usa

First the facts: The 2026 World Cup in four graphics

The 2026 World Cup is the largest and longest tournament in history - but the USA is likely to benefit the least from the three hosts.

33d06/11⚠ war-conflict · 2/5

Iran’s ‘unity of theatres’ strategy exposes US-Israel rift

The rapid escalation in hostilities between Iran and the US-Israel alliance since Sunday is being driven by Tehran’s growing confidence that it can arise like a mythical phoenix from the ashes of war, strategically stronger than ever in the Middle East. To achieve this objective, Tehran has enacted a tactical shift in its “unity of the theatres” strategy involving its Axis of Resistance allies in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq: Israeli and US attempts to decapitate one head of this hydra-like monster,.

◇ unclassifiedchina · asia · middle-east

◇ unclassifiedmiddle-east · usa · iran

Rystad Warns Oil May Climb Towards $150

Rystad Energy estimated that if U.S.-Iran 'hostilities were to resume in earnest', oil prices could 'move towards $150 per barrel'.

33d06/11⚠ war-conflict · 1/5

Oracle Corp. invested US$55.7 billion in capital expenditures over the past year to accelerate the expansion of its AI infrastructure business, exceeding its earlier projection of US$50 billion.

Quarterly capex totaled US$15.9 billion in the period ended May 31, highlighting the company's massive data center buildout to meet growing demand from OpenAI and other customers developing artificial intelligence applications. The company, long known for its database software, has increasingly repositioned itself as a provider of computing capacity for AI workloads. Oracle also announced plans to raise US$50 billion through debt and equity financing this year to support its capital needs. Oracl

Social◇ unclassifiedrussia

Japan Taps Reserves and New Suppliers to Beat the Oil Blockade

Despite the Hormuz crisis, Japan has secured the same volumes of oil imports for July as it did a year ago, as it is boosting imports from producers not dependent on the Strait to deliver their crude, sources familiar with the procurement plans told Kyodo News on Thursday. Resource-poor Japan is one of the biggest energy importers globally and relied on the Middle East for as much as 95% of its oil imports before the war broke out. Most of the oil came from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab