The Russian Currency Collapse Just Wiped Out Nearly $3 Billion Of Rosneft's Profits | ||
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Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, reported a net profit of just 1 billion rubles ($23 million) in the third quarter, down from 172 billion rubles ($3 billion) in the previous quarter. The company, which is headed by close Putin ally Igor Sechin, has been hammered by a combination of international sanctions and a huge rise in the value of its foreign currency debt. Its net debt position reached a staggering 1.77 trillion rubles. As testament to its recent struggles Rosneft had earlier seen a request for 2 trillion rubles from the state National Wealth Fund to help it weather current market turmoil turned down. Last week Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the scale of the request was impossible to meet without putting huge strain on the country's reserves. He said: The overall volume of the Fund is a little more than 3 trillion rubles and there is not enough unused, inactive capital to meet the request. Therefore, undoubtedly, the offer [from the government] will differ significantly from the request. Rosneft's woes show just how damaging sharp falls in the ruble can be for the Russia's vital commodities sector. With the currency hitting yet another record low Thursday the central bank now faces the difficult decision of whether to raise rates in an effort to stem capital outflows at the risk of damaging the country's fragile economy.
The bank's board is due to meet tomorrow where they will attempt to balance the demands of an economy that is seeing 8% inflation and flagging growth. What they decide could mean the difference between the country falling into a recession or avoiding an even worse slump. SEE ALSO: Russia Will Be Plunged Into A Recession If Oil Prices Fall Further Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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German Unemployment Takes An Unexpected Plunge | ||
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After two months of modest increases, the number of unemployed people in Germany took a surprise plunge this October. According to figures out Thursday from the country's statistical agency, the number of people out of work and looking fell by 22,000. The rate stays unchanged at 6.7%. That's not bad news for a country where business confidence just dropped to a 22-month low and where some analysts have already started predicting a recession. This graph from Pantheon Macroeconomics shows falling jobless numbers in Germany:
SEE ALSO: The Analyst Who Predicted Germany's Horrible Industrial Numbers Has Another Terrifying Forecast Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today (MSFT, SSNLF, IBM, HPQ, NTDOF) | ||
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Good morning! It's going to be a pretty sunny day in New York and London. Here's the tech news you need to know this morning. 1. Microsoft has revealed its wearable device: Microsoft Band. It goes on sale today and will retail for $199. 2. Samsung's third-quarter income was down 49%. The company warned earlier this month that its Q3 earnings wouldn't look good. 3. 3,000 Microsoft employees were let go yesterday. The cuts came from HR, finance, marketing, sales, and IT. 4. CurrentC, the mobile payment system favored by a group of US retailers, has already been hacked. It's the biggest rival to Apple Pay. 5. IBM has announced a partnership with Twitter. Businesses will be able to use Twitter data to help them understand their customers. 6. Uber drivers have spoken out over the low wages they receive. Some claim to be struggling to receive the minimum wage. 7. HP has revealed a new desktop computer that doesn't have a mouse or keyboard. Instead, it has a touch mat. 8. Nintendo says that it could see its first annual profit in four years. Mario Kart 8 has been a big success. 9. Hackers managed to breach the White House computer network. The Russian government is suspected to be behind the attack. 10. A taxi association president has compared Uber to ISIS. Many taxi associations consider Uber to be operating illegally. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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European Markets Are Up, US Futures Are Down | ||
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European markets are up early Thursday, with little negative reaction after the US Federal Reserve announced the end QE. Here's the scorecard, so far: France's CAC 40 is up 0.71% Spain's IBEX is up 0.04% Italy's FTSE MIB is up 0.36% Britain's FTSE 100 is the only falling index, down 0.15% Germany's DAX is up 0.40% Asian markets closed mixed. The Nikkei closed up 0.69%. The Hang Seng closed down 0.49%. US futures are down, with the Dow down 31.44 points and S&P futures down 2.75 points. There's a bundle of economic confidence data out from the eurozone at 6 a.m. ET, which should give an indicator of how recent slowdown headlines are affecting consumers and businesses. From the US, at 8:30 a.m. ET there's Q3 GDP. Economists are expecting a 3% annualized increase. At the same time, there are initial jobless claims. Analysts expect another print below 300,000. SEE ALSO: The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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EU, Ukraine must agree gas debt deal for talks to restart: Gazprom | ||
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Moscow (AFP) - Gazprom on Thursday said that the EU and Ukraine must agree a deal for Kiev to pay off its gas debts to Russia before talks on restarting deliveries to the strife-torn nation can restart. "The European Commission must reach an agreement with Ukraine over the question of financing. Otherwise, negotiations make no sense," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov told AFP. EU-brokered talks overnight in Brussels to solve the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which threatens to hit parts of Europe this winter, broke up without agreement. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak had said earlier that negotiations "were not yet finished" and could resume Thursday evening after each side has had time to prepare the documents needed to sign, state news agency Ria Novosti reported. Moscow is demanding that the new pro-Western government in Kiev pay sharply higher prices in advance for new deliveries after it ran up what Moscow said was an unpaid bill of $5.3 billion (4.1 billion euros). Gazprom head Alexei Miller clarified that the EU first needed to strike a deal with Ukraine to cover the gas debts before a final delivery agreement could be struck. Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously called on Europe to help Ukraine pay its debt to Moscow through a bridging loan or bank guarantees.
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