Saturday, November 24, 2018

Middle East Eye: Trump and the "Saudi Effect"

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Was Saudi Arabia really responsible for the recent plunge in global oil prices?
The Gulf kingdom deserves some of the credit that US President Donald Trump doled out just before the US Thanksgiving holiday this week, when he thanked Saudi Arabia for "oil prices getting lower".
But a slew of other things are involved, including expectations that the demand for oil will decrease and increased supplies from North American shale-fracking operations, analysts say. Read more here.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Barron's: Dutch Materials Stock Looks Tempting

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It’s time to bet on Dutch materials firm AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group.
Investors recently soured on lithium, casting a pall over the stock (ticker: AMG.Netherlands), even though its exposure to the metal is small. Now the shares—including those traded over the counter in the U.S. under the symbol AMVMF—look cheap, especially given the company’s expanding profit margins. Read more here

Thursday, November 22, 2018

Briefings Magazine: Beyond Blending In

By SIMON CONSTABLE


It’s an oil painting by 17th-century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, the kind almost any museum would proudly display. Only this one is hanging in a slightly different location: a conference room of a wealth-management firm.
Or at least it could be. While everyone from clients to office workers may give it scant notice, most companies tend to treat office art fairly seriously. After all, aside from the money they may spend on it, the art alone can help business, serving as an icebreaker, for example. “It is difficult to get people to start talking about their money immediately,” says Annelien Bruins, CEO of the Tang Art Advisory in New York. For their part, hedge funds may use artwork to signal financial success. Read more here.

Briefings Magazine: It Isn’t the End of the World

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Italy somehow goes without a ruling party government for three months. Britain’s government is only a little better off, with internal conflict and party bickering bringing Brexit negotiations to a halt. And let’s not even bring up all the dizzying turmoil from the White House and Congress in the United States. All of which should be shaking up these countries’ economies, with investors and corporate leaders feeling pretty nervous with every headline. Read more here.

Monday, November 19, 2018

Korn Ferry: No-Brexit Deal-- The Ultimate Crisis

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It was months in the making, and still the deal that Prime Minister Theresa May forged with the European Union didn’t passing enough muster within her own cabinet. And so the talk of a no-Brexit deal scenario continues to rumble through the global markets. Read more here.

Photo by USGS on Unsplash

Friday, November 16, 2018

Middle East Eye: How finance technology can grow Middle East economies

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Lack of access to banking is hampering the Middle East and North Africa.
Access to such services in the region lags the world, which, in turn, is holding back economic growth, according to new research. 
The better news is that there is plenty of untapped potential to unleash, particularly through the use of fintech, or financial technology. In other words, the problem is fixable. Read more here.

Barron's: Two Ways to Play Theresa May’s Brexit Drama

By SIMON CONSTABLE

United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s travails in selling her Brexit deal with the European Union to her own Conservative government played out in the U.K. market. Stocks were hit hard, with the locally focused FTSE 250 index losing 1.6% and the pound retreating 1.7%. 

Among the harder hit stocks were big U.K. real estate investment trusts, British Land (ticker: BLND.UK) and Land Securities (LAND.UK), which fell 5.4% and 5%, respectively, on Thursday alone. Read more here.

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash