World

NEW YORK :Oil prices fell on Friday as energy companies in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico restarted production after back-to-back hurricanes in the region shut output. Brent crude futures fell 33 cents to settle at US$75.34 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 64 cents to settle at US$71.97 a barrel. For the week, Brent was up 3.3per cent and U.S. crude was up 3.2per cent, supported by tight supplies due to the hurricane outages. Friday's slump followed five straight sessions of rises for Brent. On Wednesday, Brent hit its highest since late July, and U.S. crude hit its highest since early August. "The reason oil prices reached such highs in the last few days was clearly supply disruptions and drawdowns in inventories, so now that U.S. oil production is returning, oi...

JAKARTA: Even as Indonesia wins cautious praise from some green groups for ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions, the world's biggest exporter of thermal coal shows no sign of weaning itself off the polluting fuel any time soon. Indonesia, the eighth-biggest carbon emitter, recently brought forward its goal for net zero emissions from 2070 to 2060 or sooner, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November, and joined a US-led Global Methane Pledge. It also plans to stop commissioning new coal-fired power plants and phase out coal for electricity by 2056 under a new, greener long-term economic vision. But - as with other coal producers such as Australia and India - Indonesia is wrestling with how to balance its environmental targets with the cost of pulling...

The ASEAN-Japan Centre is an intergovernmental organization established by the Association of Southeast Asian Nation member states and Japan in 1981, serving as a bridge between the two parties for 40 years. It has been promoting exports from ASEAN member states to Japan while revitalizing investment and tourism, as well as people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN members and Japan through seminars, webinars, workshops, capacity-building programs, research and policy analysis, cross-cultural events and publication and information services, among others. The ASEAN chairmanship rotates annually, based on the alphabetical order of the names of the member states. This year, Brunei Darussalam is the chair of ASEAN under the theme, “We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper.” Brunei will be hosting the A...

SINGAPORE: A former Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy group director found guilty of taking S$1.24 million in bribes was sentenced to five-and-a-half years' imprisonment on Thursday (Sep 2). Henry Foo Yung Thye, 47, will also serve an additional year in prison, in default of paying a penalty of about S$1.15 million for the amount of bribes not paid back. He had earlier repaid S$83,750 of the S$1.24 million he received in corrupt gratification. Foo, who was previously responsible for overseeing the construction of the Thomson-East Coast and Cross Island MRT lines, last week pleaded guilty to seven charges of taking bribes in the form of loans to advance the business interests of contractors and subcontractors. Twenty-nine other charges were taken into consideration for his sentencin...

With the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election now set for Sept. 29, a number of challengers to LDP President and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has said he intends to stand for re-election despite record-low poll numbers, have started to emerge. Three key LDP figures — former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso and LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai — have said they will continue to back Suga. The three are also leaders, officially or in practice, of party factions with a combined total of 196 members, a slight majority of LDP Diet members. However, while LDP veterans such as Abe, Aso and Nikai have fewer worries about keeping their seats in an upcoming general election, many younger LDP Diet members face tough campaigns and are...

TOKYO: Business confidence among Japan's large manufacturers likely slipped in the third quarter as the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant hit corporate and consumer activity, the central bank's closely watched Tankan survey is expected to show. Other data is expected to show nationwide core consumer prices were flat in August compared with the same month a year earlier as rising costs for energy and overnight stays offset lower mobile phone fees, analysts said. The Bank of Japan's (BOJ) quarterly tankan business sentiment survey was expected to show the headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment fell to 13 from 14 in June, the poll of 17 economists showed on Friday (Sep 17). "Durable goods sales have been strong until now, making up for a slump in service consumption," said ...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We may receive a commission when you click on links for products from our affiliate partners. The good news is there are many easy ways to invest; you don't have to worry about picking individual stocks, and hiring an expensive advisor isn't always necessary. One of the easiest ways to get started investing is through index funds. In fact, a survey from Ally Invest found that 65% of adults say they find investing in the stock market to be scary and/or intimidating. Whether it's the concern you'll make a bad investment and lose money or a lack of access to quality investing advice, at the end of the day that fear is holding you back from really growing your ne...

The British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth docked at Yokosuka Naval Base this week, after holding military drills with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF) and other navies. European military forces have an expanding presence in this part of the world, a recognition of the ever-larger role the Indo-Pacific has assumed in those governments’ strategic calculations and of emerging threats to regional stability. European attention is welcome but we shouldn’t have outsize expectations of the role it can play. The HMS Queen Elizabeth, a 65,000-ton aircraft carrier and the largest surface vessel ever built in the U.K., is making its maiden voyage through the Indo-Pacific, engaging with 40 countries on its journey. Its strike group includes two destroyers, two frigates and a submari...

The tech-heavy Nasdaq and broader S&P 500 are setting records after records. Three experts joined CNBC to discuss where markets are headed next. Mike Wilson, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, says expectations may have been too lofty and a market cooldown could be healthy. "We've seen consumer confidence … suggesting the consumer is fading a bit — not a recession but the consumer is tired — and that's been our thesis all along. Is there's going to be a payback here on demand? Overnight, our economics team actually lowered their GDP forecasts from 6.5% to 2.9% for the third quarter. They've kept their fourth-quarter number the same, but look, there's risk to that probably if delta doesn't fade or my view is that delta is a bit of a trap. People are saying, 'Oh, the slowdown...

1. Dow set to open lower after closing down for third straight session Traders work at the trading floor in the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the United States, Aug. 19, 2021. Wang Ying | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images U.S. stock futures were under some pressure Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed lower for the third straight session. Investors get another report on the labor market before the bell that could go into the Federal Reserve's thinking about when to start tapering Covid-era bond purchases. Rising inflation and the delta variant are also wildcards. The Nasdaq, which had been on a run of record closes, broke a four-session winning streak on Wednesday as tech stocks faltered. Chinese stocks that trade in the U.S. were lower in premarket t...