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Russia ETF Swells to Record as Ruble Advances Amid Truce

A worker clears snow from the sidewalk outside a store in Moscow. International sanctions linked to the separatist conflict in Ukraine are helping to push Russia’s economy toward its first recession since 2009. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Investors are boosting wagers on the largest exchange-traded fund tracking Russian stocks to a record as easing tension in Ukraine and a rebounding ruble lured them back to the cheapest equities in emerging markets. The number of outstanding shares in the Market Vectors Russia ETF soared 14 percent from mid-February to 107.3 million at the end of the month, driving its total assets to $1.88 billion. The fund, which lost half of its value in 2014, has surged 19 percent this year. ETFs focusing on Russian stocks and bonds collected $222.2 million in February, the biggest inflows in emerging markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. After deserting the nation’s stocks last […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oligarch’s oil deal caught in sanctions crossfire

North Sea oil rig or gas platform As first days at work go, Monday was eventful even by the standards of someone as experienced as Lord Browne. The former BP head took over as executive chairman of L1 Energy, a new $10bn oil and gas investment fund backed by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, to find an unfolding row between his oligarch boss and UK energy secretary Ed Davey at the top of his in-tray. The peer, whose appointment completes a remarkable rapprochement with Mr Fridman, a one-time foe, will use his decades of energy industry expertise and extensive contacts book to lead a hunt for partnership deals and acquisitions. The assets acquired by Mr Fridman’s LetterOne group in a €5bn purchase completed on Monday of RWE Dea, the oil and gas arm of Germany’s RWE , are meant to form the cornerstone of an international energy business. There will […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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How Much More Economic Pain Can Vladimir Putin Take?

Vladimir Putin speaks at a news conference in Budapest on Feb. 17. It’s been a little more than six months since the full brunt of Western sanctions took force against Russia . The punishment, while slow in coming, has proven devastatingly effective—especially when paired with the crash in oil prices . Last summer, of course, U.S. and European Union officials had no way of knowing an epic oil selloff was right around the corner. But in hindsight the coordination seems uncanny. Oil prices peaked less than a month before the sanctions were announced. By November, the combination of cheap oil and tighter sanctions was bleeding Russia of billions in budget revenue and had cut it off from the world’s largest capital markets. In December, state-owned oil giant Rosneft  had to get a loan backed by the Central Bank of Russia, which is sort of like the U.S. Fed giving a loan to ExxonMobil. Recent news reports suggest Russian President Vladimir […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC Puppets and Canada Give Away Their Oil

The world is running out of oil. Peak Oil is a reality, all that is open to debate is how fast production will drop off, and how quickly the world will simply run out of oil. The lack of certainty is due to the fact that (as with everything else) we can’t trust the “official” numbers fed to us, with respect to either global production or global reserves. Numbers supplied by Saudi Arabia’s corrupt monarchy have been regarded with deep suspicion, for many years, based on inconsistencies in the numbers themselves, and the high degree of secrecy within the Saudi oil industry. More recently; the massive conspiracy with respect to U.S. “shale oil” has now been exposed, with actual supply being as little as 4% of the fantastic “reserves” claimed by the Shale Charlatans. What does it mean when we live in a world of diminishing (oil) supply, and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Financial collapse leads to war

Financial collapse leads to war thumbnail Scanning the headlines in the western mainstream press, and then peering behind the one-way mirror to compare that to the actual goings-on, one can’t but get the impression that America’s propagandists, and all those who follow in their wake, are struggling with all their might to concoct rationales for military action of one sort or another, be it supplying weapons to the largely defunct Ukrainian military, or staging parades of US military hardware and troops in the almost completely Russian town of Narva, in Estonia, a few hundred meters away from the Russian border, or putting US “advisers” in harm’s way in parts of Iraq mostly controlled by Islamic militants. The strenuous efforts to whip up Cold War-like hysteria in the face of an otherwise preoccupied and essentially passive Russia seems out of all proportion to the actual military threat Russia poses. (Yes, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil falls more than 1 percent on dollar, supply concerns

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil dropped more than 1 percent on Monday, with Brent slipping to around $62 a barrel, depressed by a stronger dollar and a rise in Libyan crude output. The U.S. dollar hit an 11-year high against a basket of currencies after a rate cut in China dented the Chinese yuan and also hit emerging Asian currencies. [FRX/] Brent crude hit a low of $61.78 a barrel and was at $62.08 by 0910 GMT (4.10 a.m. EST), down 50 cents. Front-month Brent jumped 18 percent in February, the largest monthly rise since May 2009. U.S. crude was down 55 cents to $49.21 a barrel. Disruption to oil supplies from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has helped support crude with lower output from Libya and Iraq in the first couple of months of this year. But output from several OPEC countries may be […]

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Oil Eases in Asian Trade, Posts Strong February Gains

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures slipped in Asian trade Monday but remained strong after ending February on a solid note that helped oil markets snap a seven-month losing streak. Oil market observers are assessing U.S. supply and demand fundamentals, and a flurry of economic data from China over the weekend. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $49.38 a barrel at 0413 GMT, down $0.38 in the Globex electronic session. Brent crude for April delivery on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.37 to $62.21 a barrel. Gains in Brent crude outpaced Nymex crude last month, with Brent gaining 18% compared to U.S. oil prices that gained 3.2%, pressured by record-high inventory levels. While U.S. crude inventories are set to rise significantly, the market might be disappointed in its impact on current-month prices as high oil-storage levels have a stronger impact […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kerry Is Pushing for Agreement in Iran Nuclear Talks

WASHINGTON — They have spent long hours alone together. They exchange private emails. Their walk along the Rhone River in Geneva in January so unnerved hard-line lawmakers in Tehran that they signed a petition fretting about the duo’s unseemly “intimacy.” On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Switzerland to meet again with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister who earned a Ph.D in international law and policy from the University of Denver, to try to negotiate the very accord that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived in Washington that same day to denounce. As the deadline approaches for what could be one of the most important and divisive international agreements in decades, Mr. Kerry has become a driving force behind the complicated, seven-nation talks to limit Iran ’s nuclear program . But with so much at stake, Mr. Kerry’s relentless negotiating style and determination to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Killer Smog Tests Top Iran Woman as Pollution Sparks Action

A man stands in front of a general view of the north of Tehran engulfed in a cloud of smog caused by pollution. Photographer: Behrouz Mehri/AFP via Getty Images (Bloomberg) — The snowy peaks of the Alborz Mountains visible through Iranian Vice-President Masoumeh Ebtekar’s Tehran office window may be evidence that the city is finally serious about tackling its chronic air pollution. The capital’s factories and five million vehicles, prevented from burning imported cleaner fuels by global sanctions, turn the air in colder months into a suffocating smog that shuts schools and offices. Officials blame the toxins for the premature deaths of 4,000 residents a year. Many more among Tehran’s 12 million people choke behind surgical masks, as roadside pollution readings ram home the health threat. For Ebtekar, who heads the country’s Environment Protection Organization and is the most influential woman in the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, cleaning […]

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Iraq army and Shi’ite militias launch attacks north of Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s armed forces, backed by Shi’ite militia, attacked Islamic State strongholds north of Baghdad on Monday at the start of a campaign aimed at driving them out of the mainly Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin. The offensive is the biggest military operation in the province since the Sunni Islamist radicals seized swaths of north Iraq last June and advanced towards the capital Baghdad. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the start of the Salahuddin operations on Sunday during a visit to the government-held city of Samarra, where some of the thousands of troops and Shi’ite militia had gathered for the offensive. The pace of their progress in Salahuddin could affect plans to recapture Mosul further north. A U.S. official said the assault on Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control, could start as early as April but Iraqi officials have declined to confirm that timetable. In […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple