Having managed to stem its recent earnings rout, reporting a Q4 rebound in income from continuing operations which rose to £380 million after reporting a loss of £2.24 billion a year ago, UK's Barclays is facing a more traditional problem: on Saturday Barclays customers have reported problems using their cards in shops and withdrawing money from some cash machines according to the BBC.
In its latest annual letter, released at 8am on Saturday, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said Q4 profit rose 15% as net income increased to $6.29 billion, or $3,823 a share, from $5.48 billion, or $3,333 the previous year, while operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, were $2,665 a share, a slight miss to the $2,717 consensus estimate.
The United States has become a major exporter of crude oil since President Trump took office, sending a record 7 billion barrels into the world market last week. Like all of President Trump’s campaign promises, his plan to create “complete American energy independence” and ban Saudi Arabian oil from the U.S. market is being fulfilled ahead of schedule. During the election campaign Trump vowed to secure U.S. energy independence from “our foes and the oil cartels,” and predictably the Saudis, major donors to the Clinton campaign, were not happy with this plan.
Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Bitcoin hit an all-time high over $1200 today.
Traders are happy because the SEC is expected to rule on a Bitcoin ETF by March 11.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports China Is Developing its Own Digital Currency.
http://www.bloomberg.com/api/embed/iframe
Ye Jianming isn’t a name that rings many bells... yet. But, according to SCMP, it will, considering what he’s achieved so far in a country where the state firms take all. As Fortune recently wrote, when it ranked Ye #2 in its "40 Under 40" list, he runs a $42-billion-a-year oil business in China, (No. 229 on the Fortune Global 500), yet few in China know anything about the mysterious tycoon or the firm he created, CEFC.