BUSINESS NEWS JANUARY 20th 2016
OIL SETTLES AT NEARLY 13-YEAR-LOW OF $27/BARREL
U.S. stocks ended lower today after paring steep intraday losses. Oil futures took a dive, as continued concerns about the supply of crude pushed the February West Texas Intermediate crude contract below $27 a barrel. This is the lowest settlement for the future in nearly 13 years. The International Energy Agency said in a report today that the world may soon drown in crude oversupply. Fears about an economic slowdown in China, the world’s second-biggest economy, have added to the bearish sentiment in the oil market.
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APPLE SCALES BACK ORDERS FOR iPHONES
According to a report in Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, Apple has reported a potential cutback in phone orders. Apple’s plans has created nervousness in the industry that supplies and builds the company’s phones. Foxconn Technology Group which assembles iPhones has been promised more than $12 mn in subsidies to minimize layoffs at its operations. Component suppliers that rode the iPhone boom are now gearing up for lower sales. Apple has cut its order forecasts to iPhone suppliers in the past several months, according to people familiar with the situation.
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SHELL PROFITS DECLINE BY 50% AS OIL PRICES SLUMP
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said its profit fell by almost 50% in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2014. Shell said its fourth-quarter earnings excluding identified items is expected to be between $1.6-1.9 bn, down from $3.3 bn for the same period a year earlier. Its profit for the year on the same basis is expected to have fallen to between $10.4-10.7 bn, down from $22.6 bn in 2014.
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NEWS CORP DENIES RUMORS OF TWITTER BID
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said rumors about the company's interest in buying micro blogging site Twitter or building a stake in it were untrue. Twitter shares spiked in trade today apparently due to a rumor that Twitter and News Corp. were close to some kind of tie-up, according to the New York Post. New York Post is owned by News Corp. Twitter declined to comment on the news.
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