European stocks are steady in post-Christmas trading if struggling for traction after a mixed session in Asia, amid trading thinned by a holiday-shortened week and ongoing worries about the tech sector; however a strong rally in commodities - including copper and oil - buoyed expectations for a strong 2018 and helped offset concerns over the technology sector triggered by reports of soft iPhone X demand.
The notoriously acquisitive Chinese conglomerate HNA - which recently had a sharp falling out with Beijing resulting in a margin call "shocksave" - is facing a serious cash crunch in 2018 as nearly a quarter of its $100 billion in debt – a large chunk of which was accumulated during a multi-year buying spree that saw it become a major shareholder in Deutsche Bank, Hilton Worldwide and a large portfolio of international holdings - comes due.
Authored by Peter Koenig via The Saker blog,
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Note that widening wealth and income inequality is a non-partisan trend.
Authored by Ron Patterson via OilPrice.com,
This assessment is based on the data in the 2017 BP Statistical Review of World Energy available here. As such it uses that review’s definition of oil which is crude and condensate and natural gas liquids, uncompensated for their different energy contents or values of refined product components.
Figure 1: World Oil Production 1990 – 2017
(Click to enlarge)