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QNB’s 'Career Day' attracts Qatari talent

BUSINESSBUSINESSIMF approves

$12bn loan for Egypt

Saturday 13 November 2016

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QE

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Ocean LNG signs SPA with Brazil-based CELSEThe Peninsula

Qatar Petroleum (QP) President and CEO, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi hosted a signing cere-mony for a long-term

LNG sale and purchase agree-ment (SPA) between QP’s affiliate, Ocean LNG Limited, and Brazil based CELSE-Centrais Elétricas de Sergipe S.A. (CELSE), a joint venture between GG Power and Ebrasil.

Under the terms of the agree-ment, Ocean LNG, which was established for the purpose of marketing QP’s future interna-tional LNG supply portfolio sourced outside of the State of

Qatar, will supply 1.3 million tonnes per annum of LNG to CELSE, on an Ex-Ship basis. The shipments, which will begin in 2020 will be for use at CELSE’s Porto de Sergipe power project near Aracaju, in the Brazilian state of Sergipe.

Al-Kaabi expressed pleasure at the conclusion of this impor-tant agreement, and said “this is the first SPA to be entered into by Ocean LNG, making it the first supplier to deliver LNG to Brazil under a long-term contract. It represents another step towards enhancing our position as a glo-bal LNG leader and extending our reach to all markets”.

Al-Kaabi added: “Brazil is an important LNG market and we are proud to contribute to

meeting Brazil’s gas demand. We look forward to a long-term

relationship with CELSE and its shareholders, and to work together to meet Brazil’s energy needs.”

CELSE CEO, Eduardo Malan said: “This is an important mile-stone in the development of the Porto de Sergipe power plant. CELSE is proud to partner with LNG industry pioneers Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil and their newly formed Ocean LNG joint venture as its long-term fuel supplier.”

Ocean LNG Limited is a joint venture company owned by a QP affiliate (70 percent) and an Exx-onMobil affiliate (30 percent), and has an established branch office in the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) .

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi (standing second left) and other officials witnessing the signing ceremony.

Milestone

This is an important milestone in the development of the Porto de Sergipe power plant. CELSE is proud to partner, said Eduardo.

Under the terms of the agree ment, Ocean LNG will supply 1.3 million tonnes per annum of LNG to CELSE.

22 SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

QNB’s Career Day attracts Qatari talentSatish Kanady The Peninsula

QNB Group’s ‘Career Day’ attracted a large number of Qatari tal-ents, yesterday. The annual event comes

within the Bank’s commitment to nurture the development of its human resources, as well as to affirm its commitment to sup-porting Qatarization across its operations.

The event, held at the Four Seasons, was attended by the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs HE Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi , QNB Group CEO Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari and the Group’s top executives.

The Group received employ-ment applications from numerous high-school and uni-versity graduates, as well as from experienced professionals who wish to join its professional

ranks. The applicants and attendees were offered an intro-duction to the employment opportunities available in the banking and management fields as well as an explanation of the professional training and devel-opment programs offered through its Learning and Devel-opment Center.

QNB also held on-the-spot interviews with applicants as part of the first step of the hir-ing. Ali Al Kuwari, QNB Group CEO, said in a statement that the Bank gives great importance to supporting the Qatarization

process and follows a policy of Qatarization to hire Qatari nationals across the Group’s operations.

“We are proud today of hav-ing achieved the highest Qatarization ratio in the Qatari banking sector, which now stands at 53 percent. We aim to enhance this figure through the hiring of the largest possible number of Qataris in the Bank’s various departments”, Ali Al Kuwari said. The Qatarization ratio among top management has reached 60 percent, as well as 82 percent among branch managers.

Yousef Al Othman, QNB’s General Manager – Group Human Capital, said that the Career Day is considered one of the employment channels that allow Qatari youth to meet the various departments that wish to fill vacancies in their ranks. The event grants Qatari youth a general idea of the Bank’s inter-nal structure and the

qualifications its various depart-ments require. Career Day event aims to hire graduates from var-ious disciplines, ranging from high-school to university grad-uates, in a variety of positions, in addition to attracting experi-enced banking professionals. The prospects were interviewed on the spot, each according to their specialisation, then the required papers are to be completed, leading to the hiring.

He said QNB Learning and Development Center offers the Group’s staff an integrated range

of training and development programs. Talking to The Penin-sula on the sidelines of the event, QNB Centre of Excellence Exec-utive Manager Nada Al Ansari (pictured) said: “Almost all the departments of the bank have opened their registration counters and it is encouraging to note that we are receiving a large number of enquiries from potential candidates.”

Nada said the Centre will offer tailor-made programmes for both the entry-level and experienced candidates.

Commercial Bank announces winners of summer campaignThe Peninsula

Commercial Bank yester-day announced the winners of its summer

campaign rewarding customers for using their Debit Cards when travelling overseas. Customers who used their Debit Card dur-ing the promotion period of July 3 to October 3 2016 for at least one international transaction, either at an ATM or a point of

sale machine, qualified for a prize draw to win back their overseas holiday expenses.

The promotion was custom-ised for different customer segments based on their spend-ing behaviour. Five lucky customers won back the value of their holiday spends up to QR2,000 and two Sadara cus-tomers won cash back up to the value of QR10,000.

The campaign highlights the

fact that Commercial Bank Debit Cards conveniently eliminate the need to carry cash and can be used for a wide range of eve-ryday transactions both at home and when travelling.

Debit Cards can be used for making payments directly to overseas merchants when shop-ping, withdraw funds at international ATMs, or for buy-ing online from any of their favourite international outlets.

The Peninsula

Sasol, the international inte-grated chemicals and energy company, show-

cased its range of special products and surfactants for the application in the Oil and Gas Market at ADIPEC, Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhi-bition & Conference in Abu Dhabi from November 7 to 10.

Sasol’s stand designed with cultural aspect highlighted the company’s expertise in the oil

and gas industry, in particular the uses of the performance chemicals in the Drilling, Pro-duction Chemicals area and for the chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Process (EOR), and highlighted Sasol’s GTL technol-ogy including ORYX GTL in Qatar.

The stand highlighted the South African culture reflecting the company’s heritage in one side and the Abu Dhabi culture on the other. A section of the booth titled “The Sasol Journey”

depicted the various locations of the Sasol international offices and the milestones that the company has achieved in vari-ous regions, over its 65 years in operation.

Sasol Performance Chemi-cals promote the range of high-value product streams, including liquid fuels and chem-icals but focusing on the supply of specialized products and high-volume of raw materials for Oilfield and EOR applications.

The Peninsula

CASE Construction Equip-ment and its official distributor in Qatar,

Nasser Bin Khaled & Sons Heavy Equipment (NBK) showcased range of equipment at Open Day held recently at Regency Hall.

Key decision makers and operators in the country’s con-struction industry were invited to see how CASE and NBK are able to help their businesses.

Qatar is the fastest growing construction market in the Gulf

region and, with the Qatar National Vision 2030, massive projects are in the pipeline.

They include new roads, a deep-water port, the Doha

transportation corridor and a new metro system, as well as infrastructure projects related to the hotel industry, sports facilities and tourism.

“The CASE Open Day helped us create awareness about our premium line of CASE construction equipment and educate our potential cli-entele about our after sales services, training, parts support and financing solutions. We were able to meet key decision makers and influencers and show them what we can do for

their businesses," said Raffi Keuylian, General Manager of NBK Heavy Equipment Division.

"This was the first time our heavy equipment division has hosted an event of this size, and it will be a trendsetter for our division,” he said.

In an increasingly compet-itive and diversified market, NBK is committed to providing high quality construction equipment to their clients and help them achieve excellence in their operations.

S&P revises Egypt's outlook to stableS&P Global Ratings revised its outlook on the long-term sovereign credit rating on Egypt to stable from negative on likely support from IMF. It affirmed 'B- long-term and 'B' short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings.

“After last week's decision by the Central Bank of Egypt to float the Egyptian pound, we expect the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve the three-year US$12bn Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that it announced on August 11, 2016,” said S&P in a statement.

The authorities' shift to a more flexible exchange rate regime fulfilled a key IMF condition, and is also a vital step toward alleviating Egypt's acute foreign cur-rency shortage, it added.

The Peninsula

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th presi-dent of the United States

last week has sent shock waves around the world and raised new questions about the direc-tion of the global economy.

A special session at the upcoming Euromoney Qatar Conference, set to take place in December, will examine the implications for investors and government decision-makers

and tackle a number of other vital geopolitical questions.

The breakfast workshop will include contributions from Alexis Antoniades, Director of International Economics, Geor-getown University Qatar; Raghu Mandagolathur, Senior Vice President Research, Markaz; and Jean-Marc Rickli, Associate Fel-low, Global Risks and Resilience, Geneva Centre for Security Pol-icy. Around 600 executives and banking leaders are expected to attend the Conference.

Commercial Bank officials with winners of the summer campaign.

Sasol shows new technology at ADIPEC

Euromoney Qatar to discuss 'Trump Era'

CASE displays heavy equipment in expo

QNB officials at the Career Day held at Four Seasons yesterday.

Growth ahead

Qatar is the fastest growing construction market in the Gulf and, with the Qatar National Vision 2030, massive projects are in the pipeline.

23SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

Talking trade!

Trump's reforms may tighten market: QNB

City Centre Rotana appoints new resident manager

The Peninsula

A substantial stimulus and tax reforms pro-posed by Donald J Trump, the Presi-dent-elect of the US,

could push inflation above tar-get, forcing tightening of financial market at a faster pace, suggests a latest QNB analysis on the economic implications of Trump’s win.

The election of Trump has provided the world with another Brexit-esque political surprise. News of the election outcome immediately triggered a broad risk-off sentiment in financial markets. Equities and yields fell. The yen and euro gained on safe haven inflows while emerging market currencies , particularly the Mexican peso, retreated. But the fragility was short lived and markets rallied with the US

dollar, global equities and the change in yields ending the day after the election in positive ter-ritory. The shift reflected markets quickly coming to terms with the

surprise result and turning their attention to the President-elect’s proposed economic policies and their implications for the US and global economy.

While Trump offered few policy specifics throughout the campaign, he did consistently focus on two key areas of his economic programme. The first was fiscal policy. The President-elect outlined an ambitious and aggressive fiscal easing stance involving significant across-the-board tax cuts and major infrastructure renewal. Accord-ing to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, the Trump cam-paign platform proposals amounted to a total of $6 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade which if enacted, would push the debt to GDP ratio from 84 per-cent of GDP in 2015 to over 100 percent during the course of Trump’s presidency.

A more aggressive US fiscal policy has important implica-tions for monetary policy. Depending on its execution, it could stimulate aggregate demand and bid up inflation, warranting higher interest rates

from the Federal Reserve. Consid-ering that the US e c o n o m y i s already at close to full employment and inflation is rising, the sub-stantial stimulus proposed by Trump could push inflation above target, forcing tightening at a faster pace. More-over, a more rapid tightening cycle would reverberate across global

financial markets, which have become all too accustomed to loose monetary policy. As a con-sequence, this would strengthen the US dollar and push up US bond yields – spelling trouble for vulnerable emerging market

countries. The steepening path of Fed funds rate futures already suggests a move in this direction.

The second area of his eco-nomic programme was free trade. Trump was notoriously anti-trade throughout the cam-paign. He expressed support for tariffs to protect US manufactur-ing, exiting the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organisa-tion (WTO) and accused China of being a currency manipula-tor. Moreover, he was a vociferous opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and is almost certain to oversee the agreement’s demise.

While it remains to be seen how successful Trump will be in implementing his anti-trade agenda, it is not inconceivable that US trade growth could slow under a Trump presidency.

The Peninsula

City Centre Rotana, Doha yesterday announced the appointment of Vikram

Jamwal (pictured) as the hotel’s new Resident Manager, follow-ing his successful stint as the hotel’s Executive Assistant Manager.

Born in India and raised in Dresden Germany, Jamwal has been in the hospitality industry for more than 22 years, show-casing an extensive hotel experience across the European, African, Southeast Asian and

Middle Eastern markets. Before joining Rotana, Jamwal spent 16 years with an international hotel chain and his last position was

Director of Business Development and in-charge of operations in five star hotels in Africa, in Nigeria.

Commenting on his appoint-ment, Jamwal remarked “As part of the pre-opening team of the hotel, I have seen our property grow into a stylish, trend-set-ting property in Doha delivering sophisticated yet and personal-ized hospitality experience to all our guests. I am proud to be part of such a great team and I look forward to adding more value and contributing further towards the success of Rotana’s newest five star hotel in Qatar.”

Time to invest in Canadian utilities: BarclaysSan Francisco

Bloomberg

Disappointed by the out-come of the US election? If moving to

Canada isn’t practical, Bar-clays Plc suggests an alternative: parking your money in utilities based there.

Shares of US power sup-pliers have tumbled on speculation that interest rates will climb now that Donald Trump has won the presi-dency, limiting the appeal of the sector’s steady dividends.

Rates in the Great White North will probably stay low in comparison, making Cana-dian utilities like Emera Inc a better value, Barclays analysts Ross Fowler and Daniel Ford wrote on Friday in a research note.

“With President-elect Trump’s policies presumed to be re-inflationary for the US economy and the all-clear from political risk for the Fed-eral Reserve to begin increasing rates in December, we believe this presents a buying opportunity” in Cana-dian utilities, Fowler and Ford said. “The Bank of Canada will hold rates low on a relative basis.”

As the Canadian economy grapples with low oil prices and concern that the Trump administration will scrap trade deals, the country poised to boost interest rates at a slower pace than in Canada.

Dollar bloodbath turns bonanza after Trump winNew York

Bloomberg

The consensus in the $5.1 trillion-a-day currency market couldn’t have been

more wrong.The widely held view was

that a victory by Donald Trump in the US presidential election would spur a dollar rout as investors anticipated uncertainty and financial-market volatility that would cause the Federal Reserve to delay interest-rate increases. Yet the real estate magnate’s upset win triggered the opposite reaction -- a bonanza for greenback bulls and one of the most stunning rallies since the financial crisis. Scott Petruska, a three-decade veteran of the foreign-exchange industry, counts himself among those who

didn’t anticipate the Republican sweep of Congress that accompanied Trump’s triumph. Investors are betting the power of the executive and legislative branches combined will open the fiscal tap, boosting economic growth and spurring faster inflation.

The net result of that scenario is that expectations are mounting for a higher Fed rate target, boosting the appeal of holding dollars.

"It probably ranks as one of the biggest surprises in the currency market in the past 30 years," said Petruska, a Newton, Massachusetts-based senior adviser at SVB Financial Group. "We have a Republican president and a Republican Congress -- things may actually happen after eight years of gridlock in

Washington." The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the currency against 10 major peers, surged almost 2.8 percent this week, the most since September 2011. Gains were steepest against emerging-market currencies, including a 9.6 percent appreciation against the Mexican peso.

The most accurate forecasters in a recent Bloomberg survey had predicted more than a 5 percent slump in the dollar against the yen should Trump win.

On election night, the greenback tumbled as much as 3.8 percent, then soared as investors turned their focus to Trump policies seen as spurring growth and inflation.

His pledges include spending from about $500bn to $1 trillion

over a decade on roads, bridges and airports. He said in his victory speech that he aims to make America’s infrastructure “second to none” while putting millions of people to work and doubling economic growth.

Traders see an 84 percent chance the Federal Reserve, the United State's central bank, will increase rates at its December meeting, up from 76 percent at the end of last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on futures.

To JPMorgan Chase & Co, the world’s second-biggest currency trader, some of the president-elect’s policies may serve to drive the dollar even higher against emerging-market counterparts.

He’s been relatively silent in recent days regarding the

protectionist trade measures that helped him defeat Democratic parties presidentail candidate, Hillary Clinton -- the kind of policy that may spur a trade war. Yet that reprieve may not last, according to John Normand, JPMorgan’s head of foreign-exchange, commodities and international rates research.

Any souring in trade relations would boost the greenback against emerging-market peers on the prospect of a slowdown in business with developing nations.

"Trade may be dormant for no more than a couple of months, and motivates our recommendations" to be bullish on the dollar against Asian currencies like the South Korean won, Normand said in a report recently.

Tax reforms

The Trump campaign platform proposals amounted to a total of $6 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade.

If enacted, would push the debt to GDP ratio from 84 percent of GDP in 2015 to over 100 percent during the course of Trump’s presidency.

‘Global Entrepreneurship Week' kicks-off in QatarThe Peninsula

Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) and Chair-m a n o f Q a t a r

Development Bank (QDB), H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani formally launched the second edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) yesterday.

The Qatar-based initiative of the worldwide programme is designed to promote entrepreneurship by connecting startup owners, investors, researchers and policymakers from across the globe. This year’s edition of GEW will be hosted from November13 – 17 2016, at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC), under the patronage of the Minister of Economy and Trade, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani.

Notably, GEW takes place in nearly 160 countries simultaneously each year. The international initiative introduces entrepreneurship to communities in six continents through a series of discussion panels, workshops and training courses.

In addition to shedding light on the key issues of interest to the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, the platform provides a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to establish bridges across industries.

Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of QDB, said: "We are delighted to host GEW, a prestigious international event,

for the second year in a row. Our organization of this event fits perfectly with our larger policy framework to support the development of the SME sector and foster an entrepreneurial spirit amongst the members of our community. By empowering our private sector, we aim to rely on the ingenuity of our people to continue our national progress, as envisioned in Qatar National Vision 2030.”

For the duration of GEW – Qatar, Bedaya Center for Entrepreneurship & Career Development and Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC) are scheduled to jointly host a ‘Bazaar’, where products made by SMEs will be on display. Participation of nearly 100 companies is scheduled at the ‘Bazaar’, which will be open to the public throughout the weeklong event, from 1pm through 10pm every day until November 17.

The ‘Bazaar’ is an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to display a wide range of their products – including accessories, clothes, flowers, food, gifts and perfumes – at a venue that is guaranteed to attract large volumes of visitors. Access to the ‘Bazaar’ is free of charge and open to the public.

Qatar Development Bank, the state-backed entity, encourages the participation of all Qatari entrepreneurs, who are interested in partaking in Global Entrepreneurship Week, to join the ongoing discussions and interactive sessions.

ExxonMobil adds NY to lawsuit in bid to stop probeEXXONMOBIL Corp sued New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to stop his investigation into what the company knew about cli-mate change.

The oil giant has revised a lawsuit it filed in June against Massachusetts Attor-ney General Maura Healey. US District Judge Ed Kinkeade in Texas ruled on Thursday that the company could add New York to the case. The company said in its filing that the two attorneys were “con-ducting improper and polit ical ly motivated investigations.

France's Minister of State for Foreign Trade Matthias Fekl (left) talks with Maltese Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business of Malta Christian Cardona during a meeting of EU trade ministers at the EU Headquarters in Brussels.

Fitch upgrades Ukraine debt rating Washington

AFP

FITCH Ratings upgraded the sovereign debt rating for Ukraine to B- from CCC, citing easing finan-cial pressures following the country's latest IMF loan disbursement.

Ukraine's currency reserves have increased this year "due to bilateral and multilateral support, improvement in some export prices, greater domestic confidence and increased exchange rate flexibility," Fitch said.

The International Monetary Fund in Sep-tember released $1bn of the $17.5bn, four-year loan programme, known as an Extended Fund Facility (EFF), after a long delay due to concerns about the implementation of the reforms and corruption.

"Mac roeconom ic stability has improved, despite the delay in com-pleting the second EFF review, as reflected by rapidly declining inflation, slower currency depreci-ation and a mild growth recovery," Fitch said.

Ukraine has suffered deep economic decline after two years of battling a pro-Russia insurgency in the country's east, with GDP contracting 9.9 per-cent in 2015.

US grand jury indicts former Autonomy CFOSan Francisco

AFP

AN indictment has been issued by a US grand jury for a former Auton-omy executive accused of inflating the British software firm's finan-cial performance before Hewlett-Packard paid $11 billion for it in 2011.

Former Autonomy chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain of Britain was charged with fraud and conspiracy crimes carrying a maxi-mum sentence of 20 years in prison. The indictment issued in San Francisco federal court on Thurs-day calls for Hussain to surrender at least $7.7m he made from his shares in publicly traded Auton-omy when it was bought by HP in what turned out to be a disastrous deal.

24 SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

Mihkel Moosel designs a wall with a mobile phone application controlled spray can in Tallinn, Estonia.

Creative economy

Washington

AFP

The International Monetary Fund approved a three-year, $12bn loan for Egypt

to help the country recover from its economic crisis amid soaring inflation and deficits.

The IMF executive board said it would release $2.75bn to Egypt immediately, while further dis-bursements will depend on the country's economic performance and agreed milestones in imple-menting the reforms.

The program "will help Egypt restore macroeconomic stabil-ity and promote inclusive growth," the board said in a statement. IMF Managing Direc-tor Christine Lagarde (pictured) said the IMF would be support-ing an Egyptian "homegrown economic program" that addresses a huge budget deficit, rising debt, slow growth and high

unemployment."The authorities recognise

that resolute implementation of the policy package under the economic program is essential to restore investor confidence, reduce inflation to single digits,

rebuild international reserves, strengthen public finances, and encourage private sector-led growth," she said in a statement.

She said that there were "s ignif icant" r isks to implementing the programme, but that those risks were mitigated by key actions already being taken by the government and "broad political support" for

the loan program's goals. The loan announcement by the global crisis lender comes after Cairo took crucial preliminary reform steps in recent weeks to meet IMF requirements, including cutting fuel subsidies, announcement of a value added tax, and floating the Egyptian pound, which subsequently lost 45 percent of its value against the US dollar.

Egypt is reeling after six years of political and economic turmoil involving the ousters of two presidents. Police had to put down some small protests Fri-day against rising prices, and analysts warn the government will continue to face challenges. Cairo governments had avoided implementing the economic reforms for years fearing unrest, but President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt no longer has the luxury of postponing them. The IMF said Egypt's economic

program will be subject to five reviews over the life of the loan. The reviews are traditionally held every quarter, after which another tranche of the loan is released.

The IMF forecast the coun-try's economy will grow 3.8 percent this year and 4 percent next year, but inflation is approaching 14 percent and was expected to surge above 18 per-cent in 2017. This is amid a budget deficit of 12 percent.

The loan approval came hours after Standard and Poor's announced it was upgrading the outlook on Egyptian sovereign debt to stable from negative, while keeping the rating at B-.

"A more competitive exchange rate could benefit Egypt's export of goods and serv-ices, particularly the depressed tourism sector, if the security environment stabilizes further," S&P said.

IMF approves $12bn loan for EgyptRecovery measure

$2.75bn

3.8%

The IMF would release $2.75bn immediately and further disbursements will be on performance basis.

The IMF forecast the country's economy will grow 3.8 percent this year and 4 percent next year.

A board displaying the exchange rate for Mexican peso and US dollars at a Bank in Mexico City, Mexico, yesterday.

Mexico City

Reuters

Mexico’s peso slid yester-day to a record low of over 21 pesos per US

dollar before bouncing back in a volatile session, with some suggesting there was no imme-diate end in sight for the pain inflicted by Donald Trump’s shock US election win.

The peso has become a lightning rod for market anxi-ety due to fears about the future of Mexican-US trade relations.

Trump has vowed to build a bor-der wall between Mexico and the United States, deport mil-lions of illegal immigrants and threatened to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The currency slumped nearly 4 percent overnight and whipsawed throughout the day on Friday.

The peso’s losses deepened after Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade announced no new measures to staunch the slide in a news conference on Friday, then returned to around

where it was previously. So far, Mexican authorities have declined to intervene to stem the peso’s losses, a move most ana-lysts had expected, choosing instead to wait until next week’s central bank meeting.

A fund manager was sur-prised the ministry had called another press conference that suggested they could announce some measures to support the peso.

“They have some commu-nications issues,” said the manager, who was not author-ized to speak with reporters.

Mexico’s peso slumps further

London

AFP

The Dow ended with a new record after its biggest weekly gain since 2011,

but other markets faltered on fears US president-elect Don-ald Trump's spending policies will fire inflation.

With trade lightened by the Veterans Day holiday, the Dow edged up 0.2 percent to a new record at 18,847.66, scoring its best week in five years.

The Nasdaq rebounded after Thursday's tech selloff, gaining 0.5 percent at 5,237.11.

But the S&P 500 sagged under the weight of losses in the energy sector due to another sharp drop in crude oil prices. The broad-based index lost 0.1 percent at 2,164.45.

"For the most part, inves-tors took the day off today in honor of Veterans Day," said Jack Ablin of BMO Private Bank.

"Oil came down some... But with the bond market closed, it's hard to really do much equity trading. So I wouldn't take any of these moves today as any indication of a trend."

Despite an all-time high close on Wall Street Thursday, investors across Asia and most of Europe turned cautious on uncertainties linked to a Trump presidency.

After the initial shock of Trump's win, global equities rocketed up Wednesday and rose further Thursday, with

investors hoping for business-friendly policies and measures to boost the US economy, a key driver of world growth.

However, there are also worries about his plans after he said he would tear up sev-eral trade deals and impose steep tariffs on China and Mexico.

"It's been a Trumper-thumper of a couple of days in markets," CMC Markets ana-lyst Jasper Lawler wrote in a note to clients.

"The Trump dump was quickly followed by the Trump jump and now it seems we're headed into the Trump slump."

Expectations that real estate billionaire's plans for huge spending projects will fan prices have lit a fire under the dollar as dealers bet the Fed-eral Reserve eventually will have to hike borrowing costs more aggressively to cap inflation.

Dow hits record after biggest gain

Brasilia

Reuters

The World Trade Organiza-tion has ruled that some Brazilian industrial stim-

ulus programmes hurt foreign competitors, a government offi-cial said, a major blow to a country struggling to shore up its industry amid a crippling recession.

The preliminary ruling, which has not been made pub-lic yet, backs the challenge by Japan and the European Union against industrial policies they say have hurt their producers, said the official who was briefed on the matter and asked for

anonymity to speak freely.Brazil’s foreign ministry said

the government will analyse the initial WTO panel report before the organisation makes a final decision, but did not reveal its content, stating the document was confidential.

The programs implemented in 2011 gave tax breaks and other benefits to companies that manufactured cars and commu-nication technology goods in the country.

A ruling against Brazil will add pressure on the country to scale back industry subsidies at a time when it is struggling with its worst recession in memory.

A widening budget deficit has already forced Brazil to roll

back some of those subsidies since 2015, but the government remains under pressure from business groups to keep some stimulus to avoid further job cuts in the industry sector.

“It is expected that this neg-ative ruling will force Brazil to review important aspects of its industrial policies, with empha-sis to the local content requirements and tax exemp-tions to domestically made products,” said Renata Amaral, a trade expert with Brasilia-based consultancy Barral M Jorge.

Earlier on Friday, Brazil moved to launch a WTO case to challenge US tariffs on some Brazilian steel imports.

WTO rules against Brazilon industrial stimulus

Trump jump

With trade lightened by the Veterans Day holiday, the Dow edged up 0.2 % to a new record at 18,847.66.

The Nasdaq rebounded after Thursday's tech selloff, gaining 0.5% at 5,237.11.

25SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS

Workers prepare boxes for packaging goods for delivery at a sorting centre in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, yesterday. Chinese shoppers unleashed a record deluge of cash online for Singles Day on Friday, Alibaba said, spending RMB 120.7bn with the e-commerce giant in the world's biggest online shopping promotion.

Sale at its peak

Washington

Reuters

US President Barack Obama’s adminis-t r a t i o n h a s suspended i ts efforts to win con-

gressional approval for his Asian free-trade deal before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, saying yesterday that TPP’s fate was up to Trump and Republi-can lawmakers.

Administration officials also said Obama would try to explain the situation to leaders of the 11

other countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact next

week when he attends a regional summit in Peru.

Representative’s office had been lobbying lawmakers for months to pass the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership deal in the post-election, lame-duck session of Congress. However, Trump’s stunning election vic-tory that sends him to the White House in January and retains Republican majorities in Con-gress has stymied those plans.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell said he would not take up TPP in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration and said its fate was

now up to Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan had earlier said he would not proceed with a lame-duck vote.

Trump made his opposition to the TPP a centerpiece of his campaign, calling it a “disaster” that would send more jobs over-seas. His anti-free-trade message and pledges to stem the tide of imported goods from China and Mexico won him massive sup-port among blue-collar workers in the industrial heartland states of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, helping to swing the election his way.

22-year-old North American

Free Trade Agreement and adopt a much tougher trade stance with China.

The TPP agreement, negoti-ated for more than five years and signed in October 2015, was aimed at reducing trade barriers erected by some of the fastest growing economies in Asia and boosting ties with US allies in the region in the face of China’s ris-ing influence.

White House Deputy National Security Advisor Wally Adeyemo told reporters on Fri-day that Obama will tell TPP member countries at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

summit that the United States will remain engaged in Asia, and that it recognizes the benefits of trade and such deals still make sense. “In terms of the TPP agreement itself, Leader McConnell has spoken to that and it’s something that he’s going to work with the Presi-dent-elect to figure out where they go in terms of trade agree-ments in the future,” Adeyemo said. “But we continue to think that these types of deals make sense, simply because countries like China are not going to stop w o r k i n g o n r e g i o n a l agreements.”

US suspends Pacific trade deal vote effortFate of TPP

Obama would try to explain the situation to leaders of the 11 other countries when he attends a regional summit in Peru.

TPP’s fate was up to Trump and he made his opposition to the TPP, calling it a “disaster”.

Helsinki

AFP

Finland's government decided to grant new pub-lic funding for its troubled

Talvivaara mine, cancelling a previous plan to permanently close what was once the Euro-pean Union's biggest nickel mine.

The unprofitable mine fell into the state's hands in 2014, when its private operator Tal-vivaara Sotkamo went bankrupt after two major leaks spilt toxic levels of nickel, cadmium, ura-nium, aluminium and zinc into nearby lakes and rivers of the Kainuu region, situated around 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of Helsinki.

After having invested over ¤700m ($762m) of public money in the mine over the

years, the government announced last May a plan to begin its gradual shutdown by the end of this year, followed by expensive environmental clean-up operations.

But on Friday, Finland's Minister of Economic Affairs Olli Rehn changed his mind.

The government "backs an additional funding of 100 mil-lion euros for Terrafame," Rehn told reporters in Helsinki, refer-ring to the mine's current operator, publicly-owned Ter-rafame Ltd.

"The premises for reaching profitability in the mining activ-ities are realistic now," he added, citing rising nickel and zinc prices and Terrafame's efforts to put the business back on track. The company has rap-idly increased its production and its sales are expected to exceed

100 million euros this year, but Terrafame's head Lauri Ratia admitted losses are still piling up at a rate of 10 million euros a month. "We aim at our cash flow turning positive by the beginning of 2018," Ratia said.

Rehn said the fresh public funding allowed for negotiations to continue with investors on finding a new private owner for the mine, but he refused to reveal any names.

He said the mine and the activities around it account for around ten percent of the region's gross domestic prod-uct. But some locals are furious at the government for allowing the mine to continue its opera-tions. To resolve the mine's flooding problem, Terrafame has built a discharge pipe to release refined waste waters into another nearby lake.

Finland govt cancels plan to close nickel mine

26 SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016 BUSINESS VIEWS

The bond market’s tumble this week on President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals to boost fiscal spending and stoke inflation threatens to throw a

wrench in his plans before he even takes office.Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields rose this week

by the most since the 2013 episode known as the “taper tantrum,” while inflation gauges climbed to 16-month highs in anticipation of the Republican’s proposals for infrastructure spending and tax cuts. The carnage spread worldwide, with more than $1 trillion wiped off the value of global bonds, according to Bank of America Corp. data.

The leap in yields in a world betting they’d stay lower for longer may spell trouble for US growth prospects because it may make borrowing more costly for individ-uals, companies, states, municipalities and the federal government itself. The 10-year Treasury serves as a bench-mark for lending rates from mortgages to corporate obligations.

It would also raise credit risk for high-debt countries in Europe, Francesco Garzarelli at Goldman Sachs Group

Inc. said in a report Friday. The surge this week risks spooking bond investors, potentially accelerating the selloff and spurring volatility in equities and corpo-

rate securities.“The ongoing

exuberance around even faster US reflation post the US election may prove ultimately s e l f - d e f e a t i n g without much more convincing signs of a growth upswing,” Garzarelli, co-head of global macro and markets research in London, said in the note. “Until under-lying inflation in

Europe and Japan also increase, it is difficult to see a self-reinforcing bond selloff as the respective central banks will want to prevent a sharp tightening in financial conditions.”

The 10-year Treasury yield climbed 37 basis points this week to 2.15 percent, higher than the median fore-cast in a Bloomberg survey for this quarter and every period through September 2017. None of the 65 analysts surveyed predicted that the yield would be above 2 per-cent by year-end, based on their most recent estimates.

Goldman says the 10-year yield will climb in 2017 to 2.5 percent, a level the US economy can probably handle without threatening growth. The risk is the selloff accel-erates and yields climb faster than expected, potentially stymieing the U.S. expansion and pushing the European Central Bank to extend its quantitative easing program to prevent further shocks to interest rates in the region.

Trump’s pledges include cutting taxes, and spending from about $500bn to $1 trillion on infrastructure over a decade. Based on the lower end of that range, his plans would boost the nation’s debt by $5.3 trillion,

A stretch that goes down as the best week for US stocks in two years has been anything but easy money for the traders who had to navigate it.

Three distinct narratives have driven trading, combining to lift the S&P 500 Index more than any time since 2014 and give the Dow Jones Industrial Average its best week in five years. Stocks rallied on Monday and Tuesday on speculation Hillary Clinton would win the presidency, then posted almost equally big gains Wednesday and Thursday as investors warmed to Donald Trump’s fiscal stimulus policies.

The week ended on a down note for the S&P 500, as gains in banks and drug stocks were pared. In the middle was an hour-long election night plunge that would’ve lopped $1 trillion from the S&P 500 had it come dur-ing regular trading hours.

“The last two to three days have had eve-rything to do with re-pricing in a complete regime change,” said Kevin Caron, a Florham Park, New Jersey-based market strategist and portfolio manager who helps oversee $180bn at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. “You have markets that now have to contend with the idea of a much larger fiscal push then they were expecting just a few days ago. You’re seeing a big rally in economically sensitive assets.”

The S&P 500 rose 3.8 percent in the five days, while the Dow rallied 959.38 points for its best week since 2011. Small caps in the Russell 2000 Index surged 10 percent. The Nasdaq 100 Index added 1.5 percent.

Along the way, the Dow also closed at record for the first time in three months as investors snapped up what they calculated would be beneficiaries of a Trump presi-dency. The surge in stocks following a presidential election echoed 1996 and 1972,

when the blue-chip index made fresh highs after victories by Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.

Exchange-traded funds tracking U.S. equities took in $16.3bn of fresh cash on Wednesday and Thursday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It included $8bn of inflows into a security tracking the S&P 500 that was the biggest in 14 months. It was the first week in history that had two days with more than 12 billion shares traded.

It’s only 72 hours after the election but going by reactions in big chunks of the stock market, investors aren’t waiting around to find out how hard it will be for Trump to enact his economic agenda. They’re shoot-ing first without a clear read on how strong a tie he’ll forge with the Republican Con-gress, a key to getting potentially deficit-swelling proposals like tax cuts and spending implemented.

Banks surged 11 percent in the five days, the most since 2009, on speculation that the president-elect and Republican-controlled Congress will roll back regulations. Trump’s promise to revive the nation’s infrastructure sent industrial shares soaring more than 7.5 percent, with commodities needed for eve-rything from airports to bridges expected to benefit, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Small caps also benefited from the elec-tion news, extending a rally to six days and leaving the Russell 1 percent below an all-time high it hasn’t eclipsed in 18 months. The reason may be speculation Trump’s home-ward-looking policies will favor the more domestic-focused index. At the same time, looser financial regulations touted by Trump could provide a relief to banks and insurers, which have a heavier weighting in the Rus-sell 2000 than in the S&P 500.

While technology shares in the bench-mark index finished the week up 1 percent, the sector slipped 1.6 percent on Thursday amid concern that Trump’s overseas trade policies would crimp profitability for a group that thrives overseas. All four stocks in the FANG block of Facebook Inc., Amazon.com

Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alpha-bet Inc. showed losses for the week.

“They were simply a victim of a shift in sector leadership,” said Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co., which oversees $2bn. “Investors took some profits and moved money into other sectors. It doesn’t necessarily mean tech is going to be a negative place to be going forward -- it’s still a driver of productivity and represents exciting things ahead for the economy.”

Violent swings this week were almost too numerous to count. While bonds sold off and 10-year yields climbed above 2 percent, stocks whose high payouts have aligned them with fixed-income markets tanked. Utilities fell 4 percent on the week. Makers of consumer necessities dropped 2.1 percent.

Individual stocks were no less volatile. Navient Corp., a servicer of student loans, jumped 28 percent, possibly reflecting spec-ulation that regulatory pressure will ease on for-profit colleges now that the founder of Trump University is president.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. jumped 26 per-cent as copper saw its biggest gain in seven years. Kohl’s Corp. rose 24 percent after the department store chain’s third quarter earn-ings were 10 cents ahead of analyst per-share estimates. Martin Marietta Materials Inc.,

added 19 percent

Richard Clough, Jeff Green & Laura Colby Bloomberg

Chief executive officers at some of the largest US companies, from General

Electric Co. to Apple Inc., are reassuring employees they sup-port workplace diversity as a salve to anxieties caused by the bruising presidential election.

Jeffrey Immelt affirmed GE’s commitment to “people of all races, genders and sexual orien-tations” in an internal blog post Wednesday musing on the elec-tion. That echoed Apple CEO Tim

Cook’s message to workers that the tech giant welcomes every-one, “regardless of what they look like, where they come from, how they worship or who they love.” Oscar Munoz of United Continen-tal Holdings Inc. said in a message to employees that they represent “every creed and conviction, background and belief.”

Diversity issues have come to the fore as the presidential campaign exposed and deepened bitter divisions on matters such as the treatment of women and minorities; and gender dispari-ties on the job. Following Donald Trump’s surprise victory over Hillary Clinton this week, com-panies now are grappling with how to ease tensions and move forward.

Starting about midnight on Tuesday, Karyn Twaronite, glo-bal diversity and inclusiveness officer at consulting and account-ing firm EY, said she received hundreds of emails from

employees “raising concerns, thoughts and observations” as well as “areas of angst.”

“I’m actually hopeful, because there’s so much dialog. We’ve been able to have conversations about subjects people never talked about before, like racism and sexism,” Twaronite said, add-ing that about two-thirds of EY’s employees are millennials.

There’s still cause for con-cern. Advocates of diversity see major changes in workplace reg-ulations if Trump follows through with his pledge to rescind Barack Obama’s executive orders, which could include the ones in the table below.

Establishing a coordinated government-wide initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce.

Creating the White House Council on Women and Girls: Includes assisting women-owned businesses to compete interna-tionally and working to increase

participation of women in the sci-ence, engineering and technology workforce.

Trump will appoint his own attorney general and can name a new general counsel and chair-man for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as change the leadership of the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB exerts broad influence over workplace issues, and the Department of Justice wrote key guidelines this year requiring the government to treat gender iden-tity as protected under the Civil Rights Act.

During Obama’s two terms, the Justice Department and EEOC have taken the lead on discrim-ination cases involving religion, gender identity, and race -- including high-profile diversity lawsuits against McDonald’s Corp., Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and AutoZone Inc.

“The biggest effect will be in

the agencies -- the NLRB, DOL and EEOC -- that have all been very aggressive in enforcing the laws,” said Cliff Palefsky, a civil-rights lawyer at McGuinn Hillsman & Palefsky in San Fran-cisco. “I suspect we’re going to go back eight years, to when those agencies actually worked to undermine the laws. That’s unfortunate.”

Matt Maloney, head of food-delivery company GrubHub Inc., generated controversy after the election with an email to employ-ees decrying “the nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful pol-itics of Donald Trump” and said workers who don’t support a cul-ture of inclusiveness should “reply to this email with your res-ignation because you have no place here.” In a statement posted Thursday , he clarified that Grub-Hub welcomes people of all political affiliations and the ini-tial message was not meant as an attack on Trump voters.

Goldman warns against carnage in bond marketBrian Chappatta Bloomberg

The leap in yields in a world betting they'd stay lower for longer may spel trouble for US growth prospects because it may make borrowing more costly for individuals, companies and federal government itslef.

It’s all bullish in the end as stocks post best week since 2014

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Joseph CiolliBloomberg

Small caps also benefited from the election news, extending a rally to six days and leaving the Russell 1 percent below an all-time high it hasn’t eclipsed in 18 months.

Diversity issues have come to the fore as the presidential campaign exposed and deepened bitter divisions on matters such as the tretment of women and minorities; and gender disparities on the job.

From GE to Apple, fresh pledges for diversity