Business

Oil prices rose in early trade on Wednesday after industry data showed a surprise drop in United States crude stockpiles, suggesting demand is holding up despite steep interest rate hikes dampening global growth. Brent crude futures picked up 17 cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $94.82 a barrel at 0014 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose …

ISLAMABAD: The government had to relax contractual conditions and shift about Rs50 billion worth of budgetary allocations for electricity subsidies to an escrow account for automatic partial payments to Chinese Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to pacify M/s Sinosure, a Chinese insurance company, into facilitating future projects in Pakistan. This was one of the key outstanding issues hampering the signing of …

SAN FRANCISCO: New Twitter head Elon Musk said on Tuesday the site will charge $8 per month to verify users’ accounts. “Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” the billionaire entrepreneur tweeted in reference to the platform’s famous blue checkmark, saying the new plan would upend the “current lords & peasants system” and create a new revenue stream for the …

US central bankers are expected to announce another steep interest rate hike on Wednesday as they try to prevent soaring inflation from becoming ingrained, but politicians are piling on the pressure in the final days of the midterm elections. The Federal Reserve has embarked on an aggressive campaign to cool the economy this year as inflation surged to its highest …

China will continue to support Pakistan in stabilising its financial situation, state media quoted China’s President Xi Jinping as saying on Wednesday. China and Pakistan should move forward more effectively with the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as well as accelerate the construction of infrastructure for the Gwadar Sea Port, state media reported Xi as saying. The Chinese …

The PKR gained 24 paise against the dollar in the interbank market on Tuesday. The local currency closed at Rs220.65, an appreciation of 0.11 per cent from yesterday’s close of Rs220.89, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.   Topline Securities CEO Mohammad Sohail attributed the rupee’s rise to profit-taking, a fall in the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) index …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday formally decided to import 300,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia on a government-to-government (G2G) basis and approved a 63 per cent increase in commission to oil marketing companies (OMCs) on the sale of petroleum products. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet presided over by Finance Minister …

Oil prices inched lower on Tuesday, extending losses of one per cent from the previous session as more extensive Covid-19 curbs in China increased fears of slowing fuel demand in the world’s second-largest oil consumer. Brent crude for January delivery was down four cents at $92.77 a barrel at 0112 GMT. The December contract expired on Monday at $94.83 a …

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said on Monday that Opec+ is willing to provide the world with the oil it needs, and that if consumers require more, the alliance of top producers was “only a phone call away”. Suhail al-Mazrouei told a major industry event in Abu Dhabi that Opec+, which groups the producer bloc with allies …

Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk said in a filing on Monday he will serve as chief executive of Twitter, the social media company he just bought for $44 billion, a move that Wall Street analysts have said could stretch the billionaire thin. Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm the Boring Company, fired Twitter’s previous chief, …