Institutional Investor (March 16)
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Not because anybody expects them to change interest rates at today’s meeting, but because everybody wants a glimpse of the future. “Concerns over volatility around the globe and fragility in some sectors, notably energy and industrials, suggest that the Fed may signal a moderation of the pace of tightening…. A slower path for rates seems plausible as core inflation appears to be manageable.”
Tags: Concerns, Core inflation, Energy, Fed, Fragility, Industrials, Interest rates, Moderation, Tightening, Volatility
Financial Times (December 21)
“A surge of deals in the pharmaceuticals, energy and consumer sectors has pushed merger and acquisition activity to an all-time high, surpassing 2007’s peak — but dealmakers have admitted that bond market turmoil and geopolitical instability are their biggest worries for 2016.”
Tags: 2016, Bond market, Consumer sectors, Deals, Energy, Geopolitical instability, M&A, Pharmaceuticals, Turmoil
Wall Street Journal (November 25)
In the U.S., “the pressure on corporate profits may last longer than expected.” Many have attributed the contraction in corporate profits to temporary trends, namely “the weakness in the commodities sector, which is ravaging profits at energy companies, and the strong dollar, which is putting pressure on multinationals.” Though reassuring, “the problem with those dismissals is that oil may not be done going down, and the dollar may not be done going up.”
Tags: Commodities, Contraction, Corporate profits, Dollar, Energy, Multinationals, Oil, Pressure, Trends, U.S.
Financial Times (May 19)
“More than $100bn of spending on new projects by the world’s energy companies has been slowed, postponed or axed following the oil price plunge, evidence of the drastic industry action that will curb output in coming years.” The revisions affect 26 major projects worldwide and, taken as a whole, will “delay future production” by up to 1.5 million barrels a day, the equivalent of nearly 2% of global oil production in 2013.
Tags: Delay, Drastic, Energy, New projects, Oil, Output, Postponed, Production, Spending
Institutional Investor (May 5)
“The long-lasting oil price slump is reverberating through macroeconomic data points and this earnings season.” Oil and gas exploration companies are getting hammered. And “the impact of lower investment and employment in the energy sector was also reflected in disappointing first-quarter U.S. GDP data.”
Tags: Earnings, Employment, Energy, Exploration, GDP, Investment, Macroeconomic, Oil price, Reverberating, Slump, U.S.
Washington Post (January 19)
The drop in oil prices is hitting Venezuela, Russia and Iran hard. These “three troublesome nations” rely on energy exports for 68-95% of their external revenue. Venezuela now “appears on the edge of a political chasm. Putin will try to fend off domestic upheaval with more foreign aggression. And Iran will make a fateful choice between forging a lifeline to the United States and Europe and consciously embracing isolation and harsh austerity.”
Tags: Aggression, Austerity, Chasm, Energy, Europe, Exports, Iran, Isolation, Oil prices, Putin, Russia, U.S., Venezuela
The Economist (January 17)
“The fall in the price of oil and gas provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix bad energy policies.”Governments around the world should “seize” this chance.
Tags: Energy, Gas, Governments, Oil, Opportunity, Policies, Price
Los Angeles Times (January 15)
“For too long, carbon dioxide has dominated the discussion of greenhouse gases.” Methane and other short-lived gases need more attention. Methane “is 80 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide for 20 years after it is released, and 20 times more potent over 100 years.” Reducing methane leaks would not only be good for the environment, it would also boost energy self sufficiency. In the U.S. alone, 6 million homes could be powered by the methane that is currently “lost through wells and leaky pipes.”
Tags: CO2, Energy, Environment, Greenhouse gases, Methane, Self sufficiency, Short-lived gases, U.S.
New York Times (November 23)
“We don’t need to change course, or kill jobs, or wage war on anybody or anything” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. All we need to do is continue increasing energy efficiency, which has been key to economic progress. “Without energy productivity improvements, America’s energy needs would have tripled since 1970…. Actual growth was only one-fifth of that. Energy efficiency has emerged as the largest and cheapest alternative to burning fossil fuels to generate electricity.”
Tags: Economic progress, Efficiency, Electricity, Emissions, Energy, Fossil fuels, GHG, Growth, Jobs, Productivity, U.S., War
Euromoney (August Issue)
“Key energy suppliers are increasingly politically unstable and Europe faces a rise in prices, even though demand is falling.”
