#7. Oil prices drop again

As oil supplies swell, the prices drop. A barrel of Brent crude dipped below $60 on Friday, its lowest level in more than a year, the Financial Times reports.

Since the beginning of October, the Brent price went from $86 a barrel to below $60, something President Trump has been particularly pleased with. According to the same FT article, traders wonder whether or not Saudi Arabia will be able to cut the oil supply as it is under US pressure to keep prices low.  


#6. A North Sea Megaproject

In other oil-related news this week there was a joint venture between BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. The mix of UK and US energy giants has started to produce oil from a major new North Sea development, CNBC reports.

According to the same CNBC article, the project is supposed to be the largest commissioning in the North Sea in 20 years employing at least 6000 people so far. BP will hold a 45.1% stake in the field, Shell 28%, Chevron North Sea 19.4% and ConocoPhillips 7.5%.


#5. Taiwan’s trade war benefit

Taiwan may come out as the big winner of the US-China trade war. Bloomberg reports that the island economy is benefitting from a jump in industrial production partly because technology companies shift their production back to Taiwan.

The country’s industrial output jumped 8.25% in October, its highest level since records started in 1996. The biggest contributor to this gain (+ 9.24%) is the manufacturing sector, according to the same Bloomberg article.


#4. Trudeau’s tax cuts

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is offering tax breaks to businesses - instead of reducing Canada’s deficit - Yahoo! Finance reports.

The corporate tax breaks - worth around $10.5 billion - will be spread out over 6 years and the measure is the biggest sign of government support for businesses since taking power. The changes are meant to respond to the warnings on competitiveness which became louder after Trump’s tax reform.


#3. Black Friday sales to hit new record

After a record-breaking Thanksgiving ($3.7 billion in digital sales), it looks like Black Friday will also break records for the e-commerce industry. TechCrunch reports that as of 7 am Pacific Time, already $645 million had been spent online.

That’s a rise compared to yesterday’s sales at that time ($406 million) but also a jump of around 28.3% compared to the same period a year ago. Adobe expects this year to reach a total of $5.9 billion spent on Black Friday. 


#2. ABB’s potential mega deal

Swiss multinational ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB) has signed several deals that could potentially be worth around $1.9 billion to supply power transmission equipment to utility companies in China, Reuters reports.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Claudio Facchin, the head of Power Grids, signed memorandums of understanding with Chinese companies like the State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid earlier this month. 


#1. Ghosn’s alleged misconduct

It was a tough week for auto industry legend Carlos Ghosn and the Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi Alliance he built. Ghosn is being accused of financial misconduct and was detained by Tokyo prosecutors on Monday, CNN Business reports.

Among the many consequences was the removal of Ghosn as chairman of Nissan and a 12% drop of Renault shares on Monday (which may, however, present an interesting opportunity for contrarian investors).



And that's a wrap. As always, we’ll continue to track Twitter and bring you the top financial micro-messages from the web. See you back here next week.


Source: www.scoopnest.com.