5 Things You Need To Know, Today, on Friday 7th of December 2018
5 Things You Need To Know, Today, on Friday 7th of December 2018
Five financial stories trending today, including the OPEC's attempt to curb oil production as Russia and Iran resist
5. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller will provide new information today on former Trump aides
Robert Mueller is set to file further information to a federal court today containing the nature of the alleged lies Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, has told the team investigating the ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. Mueller's office, in conjuction with the Southern District of New York, will also be filing sentencing memos on Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer. Special attention will be devoted to these sentencing memos to see if they include details bolstering Cohen's account of attempting to secure a real estate deal in Moscow for Trump during the campaign.
4. O2 announces 4G network service has been restored after outage
O2 service on its 4G mobile data network was restored early this morning after a nearly 24-hour outage left millions of customers in the UK without data access. Swedish company Ericsson, which provides O2 with support systems, identified the cause for the outage as an issue in "certain nodes in the core network."
3. Following their initiative to become 'energy independent,' the U.S. became a net oil exporter for the first time in 75 years
The Trump administration, and the larger U.S energy sector, have put a strong emphasis on weaning the country off of foreign oil and, instead, focus on strengthening and expanding the nation's domestic oil production. The unprecendented American oil production boom that followed from this desire was rewarded yesterday when the U.S. shifted, albeit likely temporarily, to net exports.
2. OPEC continues talks of an oil-production curb as Russia and Iran continues to resist
After yesterday's summit ended with no deal, OPEC partners are reconvening today in Vienna to, hopefully, agree on the nature of an oil-production curb. Standing in the way is Russia's resistance to a substantial cuts and Iran's refusal to participate in any curbs due to current U.S. sanctions against the country. Failure to secure a deal has displayed non-member Russia's massive influence over the group and was met with a negative reaction from the oil market, with Brent crude falling 2.4% in London yesterday.
1. Huawei CFO will appear in Canadian court as the arrest strains fragile U.S/China trade truce
Even as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insists the arrest of Huawei's CFO and daughter of the company's founder, Meng Wanzhou, has no political motivation it is certainly having political consequences. Just before the arrest, President Trump and President Xi had backed down from their escalating trade war. Now, Chinese officials are infuriated and suspicious, which does not bode well for the continuing relationship between the two countries or the massive impact its souring can have on the global economy.
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