Author: Steven Sahiounie

An alliance is needed to coordinate supplies, and may benefit the countries’ energy exports, officials say. Russia is discussing the creation of a “gas union” with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, allowing the three countries to coordinate their supplies and make gas flows more efficient, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. The plan was first announced earlier this week by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who said the initiative came from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Peskov confirmed this, saying the scheme envisages greater coordination between the three countries, along with the developments of gas consumption and transportation infrastructure for their domestic…

New Delhi became the biggest Urals grade crude buyer in November. India has bought about 40% of all seaborne Russian Urals grade oil capacity in November, Reuters reported on Monday citing its calculations based on Refinitiv figures and data from traders. According to the figures, this made New Delhi the largest buyer of Urals oil this month. India has been boosting imports of Russian oil for several months. In October, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia and Iraq to become the South Asian country’s largest oil supplier with a 22% share in India’s total crude imports, according to data from the energy…

Automakers plan to supply vehicles to Moscow after the exodus of foreign brands. Moscow and Tehran have signed a memorandum of understanding for Iranian car exports to Russia valued at $300 million, the head of the country’s association of auto parts manufacturers, Mohammadreza Najafi-Manesh, said on Monday. Iran Khodro, the largest carmaker in the Middle East, is eyeing the Russian market following the exodus of European, American, and Japanese brands. Many foreign car manufacturers found it difficult to continue operations in the country after deliveries of cars and spare parts to Russia were stopped due to Western sanctions. The Iranian…

The U.S. men’s national team faces a must-win situation against Iran in its World Cup Group B finale, after tying Wales and England in its previous two games.Iran, meanwhile, only needs a draw against the USMNT to advance out of the group stage for the first time in its history. After getting trounced 6-2 by England in its World Cup opener, Iran rebounded for a 2-0 win over Wales.The USMNT must also exorcise some demons. Iran famously defeated the U.S. 2-1 in a 1998 World Cup match in France that eliminated the Americans.Group A will also kick off its final…

The 2022 FIFA world cupcontinues Tuesday with Group A taking center stage early, as Ecuador (1-1-0) takes on Senegal (1-0-1) at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, and we’ve got you covered with all the action! You can watch this game on FS1 and every match of the tournament on the FOX Sports family of networks — the tournament’s official English-language broadcast partner in the U.S. — and the FOX Sports app and FOXSports.com. You can also stream full-match replays for free on Tubi. Here are the top plays! Ecuador vs. Senegal Setting the stage Ecuador is aiming to secure its place in the knockout stage for only…

For nearly a decade, mega-cap technology leaders like Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOGL) have dominated the U.S. stock market. But those days appear to be over, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs. David Kostin, the bank’s chief U.S. equity strategist, told reporters in a call Monday that technology is less likely to outperform by a stronger magnitude than other S&P 500 components in the coming years, adding that the revenue growth gap between companies in the sector and others is expected to be substantially smaller. “That exceptionalism of technology is arguably behind us,” Kostin said. For the…

BUENOS AIRES/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Brazil stocks will rally by double-digits through end-2023, despite uncertainty about new government policies as President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva seeks to balance social priorities and budget constraints, a Reuters poll predicted. While financial models keep showing potential upside for Brazilian equities next year, market experts were pessimistic in their qualitative responses to the survey, pointing to doubts over Lula’s team and fiscal worries. The benchmark Bovespa stock index is set to rally 13% by end-2023 to 123,250 points from 108,976 points on Friday, according to the median estimate of 11 strategists polled Nov.…

(Bloomberg) — US equity futures pointed to a stronger open on Wall Street as speculation mounted that unrest in Chinese cities over Covid restrictions would force authorities to move faster in loosening the curbs. While Beijing on Tuesday stopped short of announcing any concrete steps toward reopening the world’s second-largest economy, it pledged to bolster vaccination among its senior citizens, a move regarded as crucial to ending the loop of harsh Covid Zero curbs. A spokesman for the National Health Commission also said local officials must avoid excessive restrictions. Futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.4%, while those on the…

Apple Pay is having a moment. In a new note Tuesday, Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Keane wrote that holiday spending data out of Salesforce shows Apple Pay adoption is growing at an “extremely rapid pace” this holiday season with 52% year-over-year growth. Apple Pay’s surge seems to be coming at the expense of long-time dominant player PayPal: Keane noted that PayPal adoption has fallen 8% year over globally. Apple Pay and PayPal now make up about 5% and 16%, respectively of global e-commerce purchases. The diverging paths of Apple Pay and PayPal come amid a broader mixed start to the…

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 29 (Reuters) – South Africa’s unreliable power supply and its high level of government debt are two of the main risks to its financial stability, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday. Africa’s most developed economy has seen 170 days of rolling blackouts this year due to a maintenance backlog of state utility Eskom’s ageing coal-fired power plants. This has not only hit corporate productivity but also hurt investor sentiment, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its biannual health check of the financial system. “Insufficient and unreliable electricity supply is likely to threaten the viability of…