December 22, 2009
OPEC keeps oil supply unchanged
LUANDA (Reuters) – OPEC agreed on Tuesday to keep supply curbs unchanged but faces an uphill battle to improve compliance with self-imposed quota restrictions if it wants to drain bulging global fuel inventories.
The 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that pumps some 50 percent of the world's oil exports has seen crude prices almost double since the start of the year after it sliced output when recession hit fuel demand.
Business
December 22, 2009
MADRID, Spain – Spain's Christmas lottery showered hundreds of thousand of euros (dollars) in prize money on the country's capital Tuesday.
The top prize of the lottery, ranked among the world's richest, went to holders of tickets bearing the number 78294. The number appears on 1,950 tickets, and each holder stood to win euro300,000 ($430,000).
Organizers said the tickets bearing that number were sold in a lottery office in the central Madrid area of Cuatro Caminos.
Two of the lucky ticket holders were immigrant workers.
Business
December 22, 2009
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that combines another round of war spending with help for the unemployed.
The $626 billion defense bill contains $128 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 3.4 percent pay raise for the military. Obama signed the bill Saturday; the White House announced it Monday.
Lawmakers wrapped unrelated economic help into the legislation. The nation is emerging from recession but still dogged by double-digit unemployment.
Business
December 22, 2009
LONDON (AFP) – The leading stock exchange posted strong gains on Monday as traders digested news the London Stock Exchange had agreed to take over its loss-making rival Turquoise.
The FTSE 100 index rose 1.87 percent to close at 5,293.99 points.
Lloyds bank was the most traded stock, seeing 220 million units change hands, followed by telecom giant Vodafone, which saw 118 million shares switch owners.
Cairn energy was the session's star performer, gaining 142 pence -- or 4.66 percent -- to finish at 3,188.
Business
December 22, 2009
LUANDA, Angola – OPEC held its output quotas unchanged Tuesday, several ministers said as the producer group called for greater compliance from some members whose overproduction could undercut efforts to support prices amid a fragile global economic recovery.
Business
November 5, 2009
FRANKFURT – The European Central Bank and the Bank of England kept interest rates at record lows Thursday as their economies struggle to emerge from recession.
The British central bank decided to add an extra boost by adding 25 billion pounds ($41 billiom) to the supply of money, following disappointing growth data last week that showed Britain unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter.
Business
October 10, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Sohail Ahmed on Friday said that out of 1.7 million National Tax Number (NTN) holders only 60 percent file their returns while 40 percent do not file.
"We have initially identified 13,000 NTM holders who filed their returns last year but did not pay taxes according to their expenditures or sources of income will be issued notices asking them to pay their due taxes to avoid actions,” he told media at an informal meeting here at FBR house today.
Business
August 29, 2009
HOUSTON: The effect of the weak dollar is again pushing oil prices higher in the face of little demand for energy and huge surpluses of crude.
Since March, the dollar index, which weighs the U.S. currency against a basket of foreign currencies like the euro, the Japanese yen, the pound and the Swiss franc, has fallen nearly 12 percent. In that same period, crude has jumped 81 percent.
Business
August 29, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan made heavy purchases of palm oil for August and September but buying will slow in the October-December quarter partly because of stocks and the arrival of the cottonseed crop, an industry official said.
Pakistan, after a long pause, has also placed orders for about 95,000 tonnes of oilseeds for October shipment that will also cut demand for palm oil imports, said Rasheed Janmohammad, vice-chairman of the Pakistan Edible Oil Refiners Association.
Business
August 4, 2009
NEW YORK – U.S. stock futures are pointing to a lower opening Tuesday as investors around the world pause after a recent runup, hoping for more confirmation that an economic recovery is underway.
The decline in futures comes amid mostly lower overseas markets and after a nearly monthlong rally that catapulted the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index past the 1,000 mark on Monday for the first time since November. Some pullback is to be expected following such an impressive advance.
Business
