Bank of Scotland warns of further North Sea pain after ‘severe’ oil slump
North Sea oil companies are poised to make even deeper cuts to the embattled workforce this year as almost half say that costs need to fall further to manage the aftermath of the oil market crash. The Bank of Scotland has warned that nearly a third of companies are planning further job cuts to survive the slow recovery from sub-$30 a barrel oil prices seen earlier this year. The bank’s annual oil sector survey shows that 43pc of companies are planning cost cutting even after sweeping job losses and a dramatic pullback in investment last year. The Bank of Scotland’s Stuart White said “there are still choppy water to navigate”. “With oil prices currently hovering around the $50 mark there is hope that prices have bottomed out and have begun to slowly and modestly recover. Many businesses however, undoubtedly face more difficult decisions on cost savings, jobs and investment,” […]
Oil storage levels fall. But the losses were quickly regained on June 2 as the fundamentals continue to provide some reassurance. Storage levels in the U.S. fell by another 1.4 million barrels, the first time that the U.S. has posted consecutive weeks of declines in a long time. Also, U.S. oil production fell by yet another 32,000 barrels per day last week – the losses continue to mount and output is down by more than 900,000 barrels per day from last year’s peak at nearly 9.7 mb/d. The oil markets were buoyed by these figures, pushing WTI and Brent back towards $50 per barrel following the disappointment from Vienna.
Of particular issue is the rise in opaque loans given noises surrounding China's circular financing schemes, which involve banks lending to non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) as opposed to directly to companies. While this "round-tripping," as Goldman dubs it, does help boost bank profits, it also means more investments on bank balance sheets and more money meandering through the financial system as opposed to moving into the real economy through an increase in M2 money supply.
Thanks to their strong antimicrobial properties, secondary metabolites have long been exploited in medicine for use against infections. Penicillin and ethanol are both products of fungal metabolites. Lovastatin and cyclosporine, too. Focused on defending his mushrooms, Cotter at first didn’t see any medicinal potential in his discovery. But after two years of experimenting, it clicked: If his mushrooms could grow tailor-made weapons against any other types of fungi, would it be possible for them to do the same against any type of bacteria, too?
Janet Yellen had the perfect response to a question about Donald Trump causing a global economic crisis
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen spoke in Philadelphia on Monday.
The topic, of course, was the economy and monetary policy and the question of when the Fed will raise interest rates. (Short answer:It's unclear.)
After giving her prepared remarks, Yellen took questions from the crowd at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
The final question put to Yellen, naturally, was about Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
A gentleman asked Yellen a question regarding commentary the person — who was not a member of the media — had heard on the morning and Sunday political shows (think "Meet the Press" and "Morning Joe") about the potential for a Trump presidency to cause "an economic crash all over the world" because of how the rest of the world sees Trump (namely: as a loose cannon).
This gentleman asked simply, "Is this a possibility?"
Yellen laughed, and said only: "I'm sorry, I've got nothing for you. We're focused on our jobs."
Back in May, Trump said that in business he had borrowed knowing that you could "pay back with discounts," which is another way of saying your lenders won't get all their money back.
And while issuing the high-risk debt of a casino company might allow for this possibility, Trump floated this idea with respect to US government debt, considered the safest and most liquid noncash asset in the world.
