For the time being, the lack of agreement effectively suspends the ceiling on Opec production, and the cartel will wait until the next meeting to confirm its output target. In August, Gulf delegates were hoping for oil at $60 a barrel by this month.
The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday, exactly seven years after the central bank cut them to nearly zero in response to the deepest recession in the post-World War II era.
U.S. stock markets once reacted violently to any suggestion that rates might rise. Consumers and businesses could now face modestly higher rates on some loans.
Valeant’s pricing practices have been under investigation by the U.S. Congress since the company dramatically increased prices for some specialty products this year. In this case, we took advantage of the high volatility of Valeant stock, its extremely low share price, and...
Anyone with a portfolio knows a loss is a loss when you are staring at it and, with 10-year notes at 2.15%, heading to just 3% will knock the value of $2Tn worth of corporate bonds down by 10-20% on the resale market. Now unemployment is at 5 percent.
Yet that won’t be the only news from the Fed. The Fed is expected to double its current US$300-billion cap or even make the program unlimited to ensure that borrowing is more expensive.