Venezuela's Decision To Import Oil Is The Perfect Example Of Just How Screwed The Country Is | ||
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Despite being one of the largest oil producers in the world, the extra heavy crude produced by Venezuela needs to be diluted before it can be exported. Until recently, the Venezuelan government had been buying naphtha on open markets to treat its oil. But a combination of falling oil prices (which makes the country’s major export less profitable) and devalued currency (which makes buying things abroad increasingly expensive) has created a conundrum. While the government holds an official exchange rate of 6.2 Venezuelan bolivars to the dollar, the bolivar is worth far less on the black market and the dollar is worth far more.
Since naphtha is expensive, Venezuela has started buying light crude oil from Algeria for the first time, Bloomberg reports. The light crude is mixed with the heavy crude as as an alternative money-saving scheme. Earlier in October, sources told Reuters that Venezuela was also importing light crude from Russia. The shortage of dollars in Venezuela to buy imports has also led to shortages of major goods like cooking oil and milk, leading to heavily-protested schemes like fingerprinting customers when they buy groceries to keep track of purchase. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The chart on the right shows how Venezuelan inflation has exploded. European Markets Are Mixed, Asian Markets Closed Way Up | ||
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European equities indices are mixed this morning, after a strong night in Asia. Here's the scorecard, so far: France's CAC 40 is up 0.19% Spain's IBEX is down 0.16% Italy's FTSE MIB is down 1.43% Britain's FTSE 100 is up 0.43% Germany's DAX is up 0.65% Asian markets had a good trading day and closed way up. The Nikkei finished up 1.46%. The Hang Seng closed up 1.27%. US futures are basically flat: The S&P is up 0.25 points and the Dow is down 13 points. Mortgage lending figures from the Bank of England are out at 5:30 a.m. ET, which should give some indication of the health of the housing market in September. Analysts are expecting a slight dip. From the US later, the major scheduled news is the Federal Reserve's announcement on rates and QE at 2 p.m. ET. Most importantly, despite the volatility of recent weeks, they are expected to taper the last of the country's quantitative easing purchases and end QE3. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Russia offers US space station help after rocket explodes | ||
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Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Wednesday offered to help the United States with deliveries to the International Space Station after an unmanned American supply rocket exploded on lift-off. "If a request is made for the urgent delivery of any American supplies to the ISS with the help of our vessels then we will fulfill the request," Russian space agency official Alexei Krasnov told state-run RIA Novosti news agency, adding that NASA had not yet asked for assistance. An unmanned rocket owned by private firm Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded Tuesday in a giant fireball and plummeted back to Earth just seconds after a launch from Wallops Island, Virginia on what was to be a resupply mission. Orbital's Cygnus cargo ship was carrying 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies for the six astronauts living at the research outpost, a US-led multi-national collaboration. Officials said the cost of the rocket and supplies was over $200 million, not including the damage caused on the ground. Europe stopped delivering supplies to the ISS this summer, and the outpost is now resupplied by Russia and two NASA-contracted private American firms -- Space X and Orbital Sciences. Russia on Wednesday successfully launched its own supply mission from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan. The Russian cargo ship Progress took off for the ISS on a planned mission to replace a sister vessel. Krasnov said that the impact of the loss of the rocket on Russian operations at the space station would be "minimal."
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Drugmaker Sanofi Fired Its CEO For Being Insufficiently French, And The Stock Is Tanking (SNY) | ||
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Drugmaker Sanofi has suddenly fired its CEO, Chris Viehbacher. The board met early this morning. Bizarrely, Viehbacher's ousting comes in part because he was insufficiently French, it seems: • He was the company's first non-French boss. • He moved to Boston to run the company (its HQ and board were based in Paris). • He made the company less French and more international in its outlook. • And in doing so, he made enemies on the French board, who have now temporarily replaced him with a Frenchman, Chairman Serge Weinberg. Reuters notes that Viehbacher was Sanofi's first non-French boss. The stock fell nearly 14% in premarket trading on NYSE, it's down on the Paris exchange too. Investors will be furious: Six years ago when he took over, SNY stock was dwelling at $25.62. Until a few days ago it peaked at $56.43. Now it's in freefall on the news. Just hours before, Veihbacher had dismissed the "rumors" that he was about to be fired. It seems that the Sanofi board — which is mostly French — didn't like the fact that Viehbacher had moved to Boston, Bloomberg reports. Generally, in the pharma business, US sales make up around 50% of all global drug sales. Viehbacher also made the company more international, Reuters says: Sanofi's first non-French boss, he took his job in late 2008. He has transformed a very French drug company by making it more international, winning the praise of many analysts and investors but raising some hackles in Paris and directly butting heads with some board members over the past several months. The move appears to come after a clash of styles, the Wall Street Journal says: Sanofi Chairman Serge Weinberg said Mr. Viehbacher was ousted because of his management style and relationship with the company’s board. Mr. Weinberg added that he would temporarily take over Mr. Viehbacher’s responsibilities and that the company had no plans to change its strategy. The Financial Times has the story: Sanofi’s directors have ousted chief executive Chris Viehbacher in a dramatic denouement to simmering tensions on the board of the Paris-based pharmaceuticals group. The company, one of France’s biggest by market capitalisation, confirmed the decision on Wednesday following a dawn board meeting. “The board of directors held a meeting Wednesday October 29 at 8am and decided unanimously to remove Christopher A. Viehbacher,” it said. The board thanked Mr Viehbacher, the first non-French chief executive in Sanofi’s history, for “all the hard work” during his six years at the head of the company. The move comes after Viehbachher wrote the board a letter telling them why changing CEOs would be a bad idea, according to the Wall Street Journal: In the letter, Viehbacher wrote that “it has come to my attention, first through rumor, that the chairman of the board is actively seeking a successor to me as chief executive officer …I, of course, respect the board’s right to change the CEO. I would also like to draw to the board’s attention my personal views about why changing the ceo now would be detrimental to the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders…” Viehbacher cited the price of Sanofi stock, which was at an “historic high” at the time, recent results of clinical trial data for various medicines and the “value” of the product pipeline. And he argued that removing him would destabilize senior management; disrupt alliances with other companies, such as with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and alter relationships with regulators and industry trade groups. “I have worked hard and traveled long distances over the past five years to rebuild a Sanofi that is financially successful, provided new hope to patients through innovative new medicines and built a strong leadership team,” the 54-year-0ld Viehbacher wrote. “I ask you not to put this development at risk and that we have a dialogue about what the board would like to see going forward.” We're updating this post live so click here or refresh for further details. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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There It Goes Again — Russian Ruble Falls To New Record Lows | ||
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The ruble fell to a new record low against the dollar and euro in early trading Wednesday despite a $2.5 billion intervention from the Russian central bank to prop up the currency.
The Russian central bank has been forced to intervene once more in currency markets by using foreign exchange reserves to purchase rubles as it continued its slide. The currency has fallen around 20% since January. Elvira Nabiullina, head of the bank, acknowledged earlier this month that if markets turn against the ruble it "won’t be able to restrain them" but is nevertheless compelled to act to protect Russian businesses from the impact of sharp falls. Sharp falls hurt firms with foreign suppliers or foreign currency debt obligations and could further undermine already weak economic growth in the country. The Russian central bank has tried to smooth the transition to a weaker exchange rate through its interventions but it is paying a high price. Russia's international reserve stockpile has fallen from $464.2 billion at the start of September to $443.8 billion as at October 17, and will have dropped even lower due to further intervention in recent days. As a signal of how big a problem the ruble's collapse has become for policymakers, the central bank announced plans to pump an additional $50 billion into the country's banking system through currency repo auctions (whereby the central bank exchanges rubles for dollars at a fixed rate). The first auction is scheduled to be held Wednesday. SEE ALSO: Russian Ruble Hits An All-Time Low Against The Euro Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Syria rebels cross from Turkey to join Kobane battle | ||
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SANLIURFA (Turkey) (AFP) - A group of 150 Syrian fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Wednesday crossed into Syria from Turkey to join Kurdish fighters defending the border town of Kobane against Islamic State jihadists, a local Turkish official said. The official, who asked not to be named, said the FSA fighters crossed overnight. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed the information but put the number at 50 fighters. The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency said the FSA fighters had crossed in eight vehicles at the Mursitpinar border crossing.
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Amateur Video Shows NASA Rocket Exploding In Massive Ball Of Flames | ||
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Amateur footage shows the NASA rocket that exploded seconds after liftoff from the space agency's launch pad Virginia on Tuesday night. The video, taken by Instagram user michaelwaller77, was posted by The Wall Street Journal. This is like have hundreds of millions of dollars blown up in an instant. The unmanned Antares rocket was carrying 5,000 pounds of cargo bound for the International Space Station under a resupply contract with Orbital Sciences. Orbital is one of the two private companies that NASA has hired to ferry supplies into space. The other is SpaceX
"The crew of the International Space Station is in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies," NASA said.
The mishap occurred just after 6:22 p.m. EDT at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. NASA officials said that damage to the area following the explosion was mostly contained, although there might be some scattered of debris. Orbital has organized an investigation board to determine what caused the catastrophic failure. “It is far too early to know the details of what happened,” Frank Culbertson, Orbital’s executive vice president and general manager said in a statement. "As soon as we understand the cause we will begin the necessary work to return to flight to support our customers and the nation’s space program.” Roughly one-third of the cargo headed for the ISS was dedicated to science experiments, but there was also more then 1,500 pounds of crew equipment, food, and flight procedure books. SEE ALSO: SpaceX Just Unveiled Its Brand-New Capsule For Taking Astronauts To Space Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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