World

HOUSTON :Oil prices rose nearly 1.5 per cent on Friday, posting a second straight weekly increase as impending European Union sanctions on Russian oil raised the prospect of tighter supply and had traders shrugging off worries about global economic growth. Brent futures rose $1.49, or 1.3 per cent, to settle at $112.39 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed $1.51, or 1.4 per cent, to end at $109.77 a barrel. "In the near term, the fundamentals for oil are bullish and it is only fears of an economic slowdown in the future that is holding us back," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group. For the week, WTI gained about 5 per cent, while Brent nearly 4 per cent after the EU set out an embargo on Russian oil as part of its toughest-yet package of sanctions o...

Singapore has built its food resilience with buffer stocks and by diversifying its sources, so that it can cope when any single source is disrupted, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday (May 27). Speaking to media at the end of a four-day working visit to Tokyo, Japan, Mr Lee was replying to a question on how Singapore will be responding to other countries’ export bans – and if it will seek redress at the World Trade Organization (WTO). He said the answer to such a situation “is not what we do now, but what we have been doing now for several years, which has been to build up our buffer stocks and our resiliency, and diversify our sources”. “So that (when) any single source is interrupted, we are not unduly affected. And if you can't buy chicken from one place, you can buy chick...

"COMPLETE LACK OF REMORSE" Deputy Public Prosecutors Mohamed Faizal, Senthilkumaran Sabapathy and Sean Teh said that Gaiyathiri's application only proved a "complete lack of remorse" on her part and that there were no grounds to disclose the materials requested. "With respect, the entire application reeks of an attempt to fish for evidence with the fanciful hope that some of the evidence could be used in her favour," said the prosecutors. They said it was "implausible" that the WhatsApp messages between Gaiyathiri and Ms Piang Ngaih Don's next-of-kin existed as there would have been no opportunity for such an exchange. They noted that Gaiyathiri was arrested soon after the victim's death on Jul 26, 2016 and has been in custody since then, with no access to her mobile phone or any devic...

LONDON: The UK government on Tuesday (May 17) unveiled a plan to drastically overhaul post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, arguing the changes are needed to end political paralysis in the divided territory. But the European Union, defending the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol and the integrity of its vast single market, vowed reprisals if Britain pushes ahead with its unilateral plans. London said it would introduce legislation reforming the protocol "in the coming weeks" - unless Brussels caves on its refusal to renegotiate the pact. The protocol was agreed as part of Britain's Brexit divorce deal with the European Union, recognising Northern Ireland's status as a fragile, post-conflict territory that shares the UK's new land border with the European Union. Its requirement...

HONG KONG :U.S. regulatory officials have arrived in Beijing seeking to settle a long-running dispute over the auditing compliance of U.S.-listed Chinese firms, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The stand-off, if not resolved, could see Chinese firms kicked off New York bourses. This week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) added over 80 firms, including e-commerce giant JD.com and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp to the list of companies facing possible expulsion. The talks between officials from the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and their counterparts at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) can be described as 'late stage' after China made concessions in recent months, the people said. The PCAOB officials are expecte...

JAKARTA : Indonesia will determine palm oil producers' mandatory domestic sales volume based on their refining capacity and local demand for cooking oil, a trade ministry regulation document showed on Wednesday, as the government plans an industry audit. The world's top palm oil producer allowed the resumption of crude palm oil exports and its derivatives from Monday but put in place a policy of mandatory sales to the local market at a certain price level, known as a domestic market obligation (DMO), to secure the supply of the vegetable oil at home. Traders in India had said Indonesian sellers were waiting for details of the DMO before they take on larger orders. Each company's compliance with the DMO will be used as the basis for the volume they are allowed to export, the regulation r...

NEW YORK : Wall Street ended a volatile trading day higher on Monday and benchmark U.S. Treasury yields breached the 3 per cent mark as investors braced for a widely anticipated U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike. All three major U.S. stock indexes gyrated between positive and negative territory throughout the session, and the 10-year Treasury yield touched its highest level in more than three years. Wall Street's last-minute rally came on the heels of the S&P 500's worst January-April percentage drop since 1932, as market participants steadied themselves for any signs of increased hawkishness from the Fed at the conclusion of its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. "The market is faced with a number of challenges and there's not a lot of conviction one way or the other," said Ro...

Referring to the battle of Southeast Asia's e-commerce market between Grab, Sea and Goto, Jungle Ventures said: "I think they are still in the opening act of this movie." Southeast Asia's e-commerce ecosystem is still at a "very, very nascent stage" and many more business models and companies will be formed in the region, said the founding partner of a venture capital firm. "We're talking about single-digit digital penetration, as compared to the overall commerce penetration," Amit Anand of Jungle Ventures, a Southeast Asian company, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Thursday. When asked about the competition between the likes of Grab, Sea and Goto for the heart of the region's e-commerce market, he said: "I think they're still in the opening act of this movie." "By no means I think the s...

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WASHINGTON/HONG KONG : "Significant issues remain" in reaching a deal with China over a long-running dispute around auditing compliance of China-based companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official said on Tuesday. The SEC's international affairs chief, YJ Fischer, told an audience that the agency's accounting body, the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), would need to complete China audit inspections by Nov. 22 to meet a U.S. deadline that will require noncompliant Chinese companies to delist by early 2023. Fischer added that Chinese authorities should consider delisting from U.S. exchanges a "subset of issuers" that it deems "too sensitive to comply" with U.S. rules. "While there has certainly been progress in the...