Fed raises interest rates, citing ongoing U.S. recovery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade on Wednesday, signaling faith that the U.S. economy had largely overcome the wounds of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

The U.S. central bank's policy-setting committee raised the range of its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, ending a lengthy debate about whether the economy was strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs.

"With the economy performing well and expected to continue to do so, the committee judges that a modest increase in the federal funds rate is appropriate," Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in a press conference after the rate decision was announced. "The economic recovery has clearly come a long way."

The Fed's policy statement noted the "considerable improvement" in the U.S. labor market, where the unemployment rate has fallen to 5 percent, and said policymakers are "reasonably confident" inflation will rise over the medium term to the Fed's 2 percent objective.

The central bank made clear the rate hike was a tentative beginning to a "gradual" tightening cycle, and that in deciding its next move it would put a premium on monitoring inflation, which remains mired below target.

"The process is likely to proceed gradually," Yellen said, a hint that further hikes will be slow in coming.

She added that policymakers were hoping for a slow rise in rates but one that will keep the Fed ahead of the curve as the economic recovery continues. "To keep the economy moving along the growth path it is on ... we would like to avoid a situation where we have left so much (monetary) accommodation in place for so long we have to tighten abruptly."

New economic projections from Fed policymakers were largely unchanged from September, with unemployment anticipated to fall to 4.7 percent next year and economic growth hitting 2.4 percent.

The Fed statement and its promise of a gradual path represented a compromise between policymakers who have been ready to raise rates for months and those who feel the economy is still at risk from weak inflation and slow global growth.

"The Fed is going out of its way to assure markets that, by embarking on a 'gradual' path, this will not be your traditional interest rate cycle," said Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz.

Fed officials said they were confident the situation was ripe for them to make a historic turn in policy without much disruption to financial markets, which had expected the hike this week.

U.S. stocks rallied on the news, in part because the Fed made clear it would proceed slowly with further tightening. Yields on U.S. Treasuries rose, while the dollar was largely unchanged against a basket of currencies. Oil prices fell sharply before paring losses.

The Federal Reserve just enacted several changes to monetary policy, raising the benchmark Federal Funds target rate for the first time since 2006. Here are the key takeaways:

1. The target for the overnight interest rate has been raised, and the Fed will aim for 0.25% to 0.50% in the Federal Funds market, which is only traded by banks and the Federal GSEs. Some analysts predicted the Fed would simply target 0.50% and not a range. Accordingly, this move by the Fed gives it flexibility to enact its monetary policy goals where interest rates are still close to the critical zero-bound.

2. The Fed will maintain the size of its $4.4 trillion balance sheet, which is largely composed of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities that are guaranteed by the U.S. government. When the bonds mature, they will be rolled over, meaning the Fed will buy new bonds to replace them. This move was expected, but had the Fed decided to let the bonds “roll off” its balance sheet when they matured, this would have spooked bond markets and spiked rates further.

3. Interest on reserves was raised from 0.25% to 0.50%. This determines the amount of interest the Fed pays banks to keep their money sterilized (out of the economy) and stashed at the Fed. The move was largely expected and helps establish a floor on short-term interest rates. Therefore, banks are encouraged to keep as much money at the Fed as possible to earn a risk-free 0.50% interest rate.

4. The lower bound of 0.25% for the benchmark rate will be effected by the Fed selling its securities to a select group of primary dealers and buying them back the next day. The Fed will use $2 trillion of its bonds in these operations and will limit participation to $30 billion per dealer. The operation is called a reverse repo (or repurchase) and has an overnight maturity, meaning the Fed will be monitoring and conducting these operations every day to maintain the target interest rate range. By selling low and buying high, the Fed puts pressure on rates to achieve its target range.

5. The Fed will conduct longer term operations to drain money as well, using a so-called “term deposit facility” it set up in 2010. At the time, it believed a rate hike was imminent. As we now know, it took an additional five years to get to this point.

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Oil Industry Influence Waning Amid Oil Price Slump

One unexpected victim of the oil price downturn seems to be the U.S. lobbying industry. The group of firms, whose business revolves around making sure government officials hear the concerns of U.S. companies, have long counted the oil and gas industry as a big customer. Now that seems to be changing as lower U.S. oil prices leave energy companies looking to cut costs wherever they can.
Lobbying by oil and gas companies has dropped 10 percent on a year over year basis while lobbying by E&P firms fell a more dramatic 25 percent. What’s interesting though is how little cash the industry as a whole is spending to lobby the government and what an outsized influence that cash has. The oil and gas industry as a whole spent just under $24 million in the second quarter for instance, putting it on track to spend roughly $100 million for the entire year. The energy and natural resources industry in its entirety has spent a total of about $165 million so far in 2015 versus about $350 million in all of 2014.
Those numbers, while large to an individual firm, are trivial in the context of an entire industry. In 2014 for instance, Exxon Mobil alone earned over $32 billion in profit or roughly 100 times the entire lobbying budget for the industry.
Yet despite the low level of spending on lobbying, there is little doubt that Congress has tremendous power to help or hinder entire industries. In addition to obvious corporate issues like repatriation of foreign earnings and the corporate tax rate, smaller issues like the use of the country’s strategic petroleum reserve, the ethanol and solar tax credits, and the oil export ban all could dramatically change the face of the energy industry. In that sense then, either lobbying is very ineffective to accomplish these priorities, or U.S. energy firms are making a big mistake by not spending much more on lobbying.
In fact, the U.S. energy sector is not the largest lobbying group – it’s not even second. The energy sector comes in a distant fifth in lobbying behind Miscellaneous Business, Finance, Healthcare, and Communications. There are no energy companies on the list of top lobbying firms in 2015 so far, and in 2014, only sprawling conglomerate Koch Industries made the list of top 20 lobbyists spending a relatively paltry $13.7 million. The U.S. trade organizations representing the oil and natural gas industries are looking to merge to improve their clout having spent $10.5 million in 2014. Oil and gas lobbying has actually been on a steady decline since 2010 despite years of high oil prices.

start turn down from tomorrow onwands ah ??

In a Mideast upset by cheap oil, more crude may enter market

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Across a Mideast fueled by oil production, low global prices have some countries running on empty and scrambling to cover shortfalls, even as more regional crude is on tap to enter the market.

While some Gulf nations rest on ample reserve funds, embattled Iraq is desperate to scrounge up more money for its fight against the extremist Islamic State group as protesters demand repairs to its failing power grid. Contrast that to neighboring Iran, whose nuclear deal with world powers positions it to re-enter the global oil market and make long-needed repairs to its fields to increase its daily production.

The possibility of more supply entering the market has analysts already lowering their forecast price for oil into the next year. And even if the price rises, industry experts say U.S. production quickly could ramp up and keep prices low for years to come, challenging the power of OPEC.

"There's almost no way that OPEC can get the band back together," said Greg Priddy, the director for global energy and natural resources at the Eurasia Group. "You can't get prices rapidly back up ... because you'd get runaway growth in the U.S."

Fluctuating oil prices are nothing new to the Mideast, such as the drop in prices in the 1980s following the 1970s oil crisis in the U.S. This time around, as global prices have fallen by more than 50 percent since the middle of last year, countries like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait have large cash reserves to cushion the blow. Many in the Gulf also have diversified their economies.

New U.S. Oil Boom Near: Defaults Are On The Rise

The bulk of the cash flow at oil producers is already devoted to servicing debt, which expanded earlier this year when companies turned to the bond and equity markets to offset lower revenue from selling cheaper oil.

The Energy Information Administration said Friday that 83% of the operating cash at U.S. companies with onshore activity was devoted to debt repayments from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015, marking the highest rate since at least 2012.

"Low oil prices have significantly reduced cash flow for U.S. oil producers, and to adjust to lower cash flows, companies have reduced capital expenditures and raised more cash from debt and equity," the EIA report said. "With fixed debt repayments and the large reduction in cash from operations for these companies, the ratio of debt repayments to operating cash flow has increased recently.

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outorder , could you show me how to 'see' actually ...?? You should be so naive or childish lah !! If I can control the prices up and down , I won't be here any more , wait my time only ....! Try to go back to primary school study before talked to me , god damn you ......

With the Fed poised to get back into interest rate hiking mode again soon — likely this week — it's a good time to consider what banks tend to benefit the most when rates rise.

If you hate the "big banks" there's bad news here for you. The best banks to buy ahead of this Fed policy shift happen to be Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC).

Before we get to the details of why these three may benefit the most, let's take a step back for a quick primer on why banks generally do better as interest rates rise, and how to tell which will do the best.

The answer may seem simple enough: Banks make money by charging interest, so when they can charge more, thanks to the Fed, they earn more. But it's actually a bit more complex than that. After all, banks have to pay interest to get the funds they lend. This means costs go up, too, when interest rates rise. So the key is to go with banks that can boost what they make on loans faster than their cost of money goes up.

In technical terms, you want to go with banks whose "net interest income" (earnings taking into account the higher cost of money) goes up the most as rates rise. This typically means banks whose assets, or loans, re-price faster than their sources of funds, or deposits and borrowing, known as "liabilities."

For example, banks with lots of deposits that customers may be reluctant to switch out of because of the hassle can hold off longer on paying more interest on those deposits. So as the Fed hikes rates, the costs of these funds rise more slowly than the rates the banks earn on loans.


Recent research by Barclays found that JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup have the highest "net interest income sensitivity," along with several regional banks like State Street (STT) and M&T Bank (MTB).

Global stock markets are headed for their weakest quarterly performance in four years after a torrid summer that saw investor sentiment rocked by developments in the world's two largest economies.

I don't care what kind of DOGS barking , I just hope Hibiscus share prices can drop below 0.10 , see who die then ......

Guys , let's prey together for Hibiscus share prices drop below 0.10 by end of this year ....drop more ......

Derrickinvestor , drop loooooooooo....

Write a comment..WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight years after a devastating recession opened an era of loose U.S. monetary policy, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday began a two-day meeting at which it is expected to turn in the other direction and raise rates in an increasingly normal economy.

The decision will be released on Wednesday at 2 p.m. (1900 GMT), with markets prepared for an initial 25 basis point "liftoff" that would move the Fed's target rate from the zero lower bound to a range of between 0.25 and 0.50 percentage points. It is to be followed by a news conference by Fed Chair Janet Yellen to elaborate on the central bank's latest policy statement.

Markets on Tuesday set a positive stage for the Fed's potentially historic turn. U.S. stock indices were up around one percent, bond yields moved higher, and analysts said that after weeks of preparation a surprise decision not to hike would be the more disruptive choice.

"Given the strength of the signals that have been sent it would be credibility destroying not to carry through," former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a skeptic of the need to raise rates right now, said in remarks published Tuesday on his website.

The rate hike will separate the Fed from major central banks in Tokyo, Frankfurt, Beijing and elsewhere that are all battling to stimulate their economies and generate growth.

The initial hike expected on Wednesday will still leave U.S. policy extremely loose, and Fed officials have signaled they will act cautiously from that point forward to nurture a tepid recovery.

Dec. 15, 2015 2:11 p.m. ET
$30 Oil? $60 Oil? Makes No Difference for Offshore Drillers

e Federal Reserve on Tuesday started a two-day meeting where it is expected to raise rates eight years after a devastating recession opened an era of loose U.S. monetary policy.

A rise in rates is typically negative for oil prices because a hike is likely to prop up the greenback, making crude contracts more expensive as they are denominated in dollars.

Markets are already prepared for a 25 basis point increase but will be closely watching the Fed's policy statement for indications of where rates will go next year.

In a further sign of oversupply in the market, data released late on Tuesday by the industry group, American Petroleum Institute, showed a surprise build of 2.3 million barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles last week.

A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast a 1.4 million-barrel draw instead. Official inventory data is due on Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

DROP Loooooooo......derrickinvestor , aiya ......turning back ...drop looooooo

Thanks to Inikaliok brought out the truth , but not everyone can accept ! So sad for those investors !

A wise investor should wait Hibiscus drop below 0.10 then accumulate it , that's my advice to all you guys....

TOKYO ..On Tuesday, as investors were reluctant to make any big moves amid volatile crude oil and before a widely anticipated U.S. interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve later this week.

Markets were also focused on whether the People's Bank of China (PBOC) would continue to guide its currency lower, with traders wary about the central bank's intentions after it set the yuan/dollar official midpoint at 4-1/2-year lows in recent session.

Oil prices keep falling, and they’re taking down a lot of other stuff with them

A wise investor should wait Hibiscus drop below 0.10 then accumulate it , that's my advice to all you guys....

Oil prices drop towards 11-year lows on glut fears
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a seventh straight session on Monday, coming close to their 11-year lows, on growing fears that the global oil glut would worsen in the months to come in a pricing war between key producers.

Brent crude (LCOc1) fell by 3.4 percent to below $37 a barrel for the first time since December 2008 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) (CLc1) sank 2.5 percent below $35 a barrel.

Brent traded less than 50 cents above the lows last seen during the 2008 financial crisis of $36.20 a barrel. If Brent falls below that level, that will be its lowest since mid-2004, when talk of a commodity super-cycle was only beginning.

WTI's financial crisis low was $32.40 in December 2008.

"I suspect it is going to establish some sort of floor around the 2008 lows," said Jasper Lawler, CMC market analyst. "There are lot of people out there that are still selling every small bounce, so it will take a little while for it to establish itself."

Both benchmarks have fallen every day since the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Dec. 4 abandoned its output ceiling. In the past six sessions, they have shed more than 13 percent each.

OPEC has been pumping near record levels since last year in an attempt to drive higher-cost producers such as U.S. shale firms out of the market.

New supply is likely to hit the market early next year as OPEC member Iran ramps up production once sanctions are lifted as expected following the July agreement on its disputed nuclear programme.

"All new production will be earmarked for exports," BMI Research said in a note. "In addition to volumes released from storage, Iran will be able to increase crude oil and condensates exports by a maximum of 700,000 b/d by end-2016," it said.

Iran's crude oil exports are set to hit a six-month high in December as buyers ramp up purchases in expectation that sanctions against the country will be lifted early next year, according to an industry source with knowledge of tanker loading schedules. [nL3N1431HS]

Iranian news agency Shana quoted on Monday manager director of Iran's Central Oil Fields Company, Salbali Karimi, as saying Iran's cost of production stood $1-$1.5 per barrel, in a clear indication its output would remain competitive under any price scenario.

Gulf producers and Russia have previously said they would not cut output even if prices fell to $20 per barrel.

On Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) that the global supply glut was likely to deepen next year and put more pressure on prices. But it said it didn't believe the world would run out of storage capacity.

OPEC supply is likely to increase by 1 million bpd next year, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note Monday.

"Almost the entirety of added supplies in 2016 will come from Iran, Iraq and Saudi," it said.

Drop looooo.......derrickinvestor.......drop loooooooo

That's right , same view with Top top top Wall Street Analysts said , sure drop below 0.10 by end of this year !

DROP Loooooooooooo.................drop lo......

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell on Monday and China's yuan hit fresh 4-1/2 year lows as plunging oil prices added to investors' nervousness about riskier assets ahead of an expected U.S. rate rise later in the week.

Spreadbetters saw the somber mood extending into Europe, forecasting Britain's FTSE (.FTSE), Germany's DAX (.GDAXI) and France's CAC (.FCHI) to open flat to a touch lower.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Monday continued guiding its currency lower, setting the yuan/dollar official midpoint at its weakest since July 2011. Beijing's introduction of a yuan rate index against a basket of peers - seen as a move that traders said would depeg the renminbi from the greenback over time - further weighed on the yuan.

China's decision to loosen its grip on the yuan and allow slow but steady depreciation in recent weeks had added to concerns that the economy may be more fragile than expected.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan hit a 2-1/2-month low and was last down 1.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) slumped 2.1 percent as falling commodities hit energy and trading companies' shares.

South Korea's Kospi (.KS11) retreated 1.1 percent and Australian shares (.AXJO) dropped 1.8 percent.

Data on Saturday showed factory output growth in China accelerated to a 5-month high in November, while retail sales rose at an annual 11.2 percent pace - the strongest this year. (ECONCN)

While most of the region's investors mostly looked past better-than-expected indicators, China proved the exception with volatile Shanghai stocks (.SSEC) paring earlier losses and gaining 0.5 percent.

On Friday, the Dow (.DJI) sank 1.8 percent and the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 1.9 percent as plunging crude oil prices added to fears of a possible spike in volatility if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in nearly a decade, as widely expected.

"It's fair to say that equities are going to be truly tested over the coming four days, and the Fed will be a catalyst for volatility in the lead up to Thursday," wrote Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.

A U.S. rate hike would be a first step toward normalizing monetary conditions after an extended period of loose policy, which had helped shore up riskier assets.

Oil prices continued their freefall after the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that global oversupply could worsen next year. Brent crude (LCOc1) fell below $38 a barrel for the first time in seven years on Friday and was last down 0.6 percent at $37.70.

Wall Street Top Analysts said Hibiscus not worth at current share prices , he also advise those investors can wait its share prices drop below 0.10 , then accumulate ....

Stocks on track for big weekly loss as oil weighs; Holiday shopping off to solid start
$100 never again; there's a new normal for oil


The crash in oil (CLF16.NYM) has rocked commodities markets as crude prices hover near the lowest level in seven years.
Fadel Gheit, managing director and senior analyst at Oppenheimer, told Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous in the video above that $100-per-barrel oil is a thing of the past—$60 to $70 per barrel is the new normal.
“When I look at the spread going forward, it does not look good,” Gheit said. “It’s not likely that we’ll see a recovery soon.”
OPEC’s decision on Friday to forgo cuts in oil production in the face of a global supply glut has added to the downward pressure on crude, creating more uncertainty in global markets.
“OPEC is at an impasse. It’s a divided group,” Gheit said. “Saudi Arabia has an agenda. They want to weaken Russia, Iran, and shale producers in the U.S.”
The massive boom of U.S. shale oil that has flooded the market has sent prices plummeting 65% over the past 18 months. OPEC did not anticipate the shale revolution and is now struggling to find a strategic response.
While Gheit warns of some downside risk to prices, he does not anticipate a major drop in the short term.
“Oil prices could fall lower in 2016,” Gheit said. “I’m talking $2 to $3 dollars per barrel. I don’t see it dropping below $30 per barrel.”
The decline in crude has had a big impact on major oil companies. Shares of ExxonMobil (XOM), ConocoPhillips (COP), and Chevron (CVX) have crashed as the pain from lower prices spreads.
“Producers have already seen a collapse in earnings, and we expect weakness to continue into next year,” Gheit said. “Most independent oil and gas producers in the U.S. are in the red. They’re losing money.”
But it’s not all bad news. A drop in crude means lower gas prices, so Americans are not digging as deep into their wallets at the pump.

Wall St. drops as oil's multi-year low adds to investor fears
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 ending its worst week since August, as plunging crude oil prices compounded investor nervousness on expectations for the first U.S. interest rate hike in nearly a decade.
Oil dragged down market as a whole, as investors worried whether a weakness in commodities signaled a broader slowdown.
Furthermore, investors were worried about declines in China's yuan and in high-yield debt markets.
"Positioning has been clearly along the lines of taking risk exposure off," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
The sell-off gained ground ahead of the close as investors took profits on stocks such as Amazon.com (AMZN.O), which had performed well this year, said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas.
"If you had a large oil position you need to raise cash, probably from some of your winners," he said.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 309.54 points, or 1.76 percent, to 17,265.21 with every component in the index ending down. The S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 39.86 points, or 1.94 percent, to 2,012.37 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 111.71 points, or 2.21 percent, to 4,933.47.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 3.8 percent in its worst week since Aug. 21. The Dow fell 3.3 percent and Nasdaq dropped 4.1 percent for the week.
Small caps sold off as well. The Russell 2000 index (.RUT) fell 5.1 percent for the week, its biggest weekly percentage decline since May 2012.
The continued plunge in oil prices added to investor uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve's expected rate hike after the U.S. central bank's Dec. 15-16 meeting.
Brent futures (LCOc1) fell to an almost seven-year low, while U.S. crude futures (CLc1) fell to just above $35 a barrel after the International Energy Agency said it expected the supply glut to worsen in 2016 as demand slows and OPEC shows no signs of slowing production in its fight for market share.
Adding to the somber mood, China's yuan currency (CNY=) fell to its lowest in 4-1/2 years on concerns about the country's slowing economy and expectations of a U.S. rate hike.
James of Wedbush said investors are worried about high-yield markets, especially as it relates to high-yield debt and energy needs after New York-based Third Avenue Management said Thursday it was trying to liquidate a roughly $1 billion junk bond fund in the biggest failure in the U.S. mutual fund industry since the 2008 financial crisis.
Tracking oil prices, the S&P energy index (.SPNY) fell 3.4 percent, leading the decliners among major S&P sectors. The index has lost 11 percent since the beginning of the month in its worst month since September 2011.
The materials index (.SPLRCM) was down 2.7 percent, weighed down by DuPont and Dow.
Both DuPont (DD.N) and Dow Chemical (DOW.N) shares were down following a deal valuing the combined entity at $130 billion, falling 5.5 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,745 to 376, for a 7.30-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,388 issues fell and 448 advanced for a 5.33-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

3 charts on why oil could head lower in 2016
Oil is trading at its lowest levels in over 6 years. And according to one portfolio manager, crude prices have a lot more downside ahead.
OPEC oil production for December was at 31.7 million barrels per day and the cartel recently voted to raise its production ceiling to 31.5 million barrels per day. “That’s at pretty much an all-time high,” said Chad Morganlander, portfolio manager at Stifel Nicolaus’ Washington Crossing Advisors.
Brent Crude’s (BZF16.NYM) nearest-term contract traded just under $40 per barrel on Thursday while in the futures market, barrels for delivery in January 2017 were trading close to $49. But Morganlander expects oil prices will experience “lower lows over the course of the next 18 to 24 months.”
A catalyst for lower oil demand will be a slowdown in emerging markets, particularly China, predicted Morganlander. China consumes about 12% of the world’s crude.

“Global growth is decelerating,” he said, adding that most global growth comes from emerging economies, with roughly a quarter coming from China. “The Chinese government is going to continue to decelerate their economy, which means lower demand for consumption of oil as well as all commodities."

Drop lo ...

Wall St. drops as oil's multi-year low adds to investor fears

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 ending its worst week since August, as plunging crude oil prices compounded investor nervousness on expectations for the first U.S. interest rate hike in nearly a decade.

Oil dragged down market as a whole, as investors worried whether a weakness in commodities signaled a broader slowdown.

Furthermore, investors were worried about declines in China's yuan and in high-yield debt markets.

"Positioning has been clearly along the lines of taking risk exposure off," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

The sell-off gained ground ahead of the close as investors took profits on stocks such as Amazon.com (AMZN.O), which had performed well this year, said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas.

"If you had a large oil position you need to raise cash, probably from some of your winners," he said.

Drop loooo ....Meanwhile, investors continued to monitor global oil prices as they sunk to a fresh seven-year low on Thursday, its fifth down day, and the longest losing streak so far in five months. The sharp declines come on the heels of renewed concerns about production levels that haven’t slowed as global supply continues to build. Last week OPEC opted not to cut its production levels despite some resistance from member nations that wanted to see some of the pricing pressure alleviated in the near-term.

In recent action, West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 0.11% to $37.13 a barrel, while Brent slid 0.07% to $40.08.

Guarantee share prices drop today onwards , and do you think that experts Top Wall Street Analysts need to ask mek ? Is investigate their management......

Guys , here got many experts , and also have Top Wall Street Analysts including me ....ha...because Malaysia slogan...Macam macam Boleh ma ....

OPEC’s Newest Member That Actually Likes Low Oil Prices

As expected, OPEC’s decision to stick to its ‘high’ production levels in its December 4th meeting in Vienna didn’t go down well with the markets as oil prices plunged after the announcement.

It is also quite evident that there is now a growing resentment within OPEC as members like Venezuela, Libya, Algeria and Angola were hoping for a production cut, which could have helped their ailing economies.

But in another interesting development, OPEC announced the re-entry of Indonesia into the oil cartel. Many experts consider this to be an unusual move as Indonesia is a net importer of oil and consumes almost double of what it produces, much unlike any other OPEC members. In fact, Indonesia’s OPEC membership had come to an end in the year 2009 when its crude oil imports far exceeded its crude oil exports. So why was OPEC, which is dominated by the likes of oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia and UAE, so keen to reinstate a member that prefers the oil price to remain low?

Those directors take gaji buta.....today onwards Hibiscus share prices drop lo ....DROP Loooooooooooo..........

Myob ....pls respond to Inikaliok , why silence !

DROP lo ooooo.....DROP looooo....

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, broke through that psychologically important level Tuesday for the first time since February 2009. It may seem like it will take a miracle to turn things around, given the impasse in Vienna last week. Leaders of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries effectively threw up their hands and said “let the market sort things out.”

It will, but not before more pain for energy producers, both state-owned and private. About 40% of the market—that number again—comes from OPEC and is engaged in a war for market share. Their collective output is seen rising in 2016 as sanctions against Iran are lifted.

But another big chunk of the market, private companies that no longer quite deserve the name “big oil,” has an entirely different agenda. Those companies have already slashed investment over the past year. The latest leg down will only hasten that process.

The Wall Street Journal

It involves thousands of individual decisions in hundreds of boardrooms, but it boils down to two questions: How much cash is available to invest today and what return can be projected based on oil-price expectations. Both numbers are headed lower.

Compared with the summer of 2014 when prices last peaked, forecasts of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for the world’s five largest, private integrated oil and gas companies have dropped by eye-popping $232 billion in 2015 and 2016 combined—or about 42%—according to FactSet. The five largest exploration and production companies have seen that proxy of cash flow drop by $83 billion, or close to 60%.

And those assumptions still are based on forecasts that Brent prices will bounce back to a less painful average of $60 a barrel or so in 2016. They might, but a producer wishing to lock in a price for a barrel a year from now will receive barely $48 in the futures market. Complicating matters, some large companies remain committed to stable or, in the case of Exxon Mobil and Chevron, rising dividends.

Guessing when oil prices will recover is even more complicated than it used to be when OPEC mattered. But an equally important question is now coming into focus: How sharply will prices rebound when they eventually do?

Hibiscus already dumped all investor's money into Big Ocean , so their management will try to spread news to lure new investors , be careful !

OPEC failed to agree to a production target on December 4 in Vienna, removing the stated target of 30 million barrels per day (mb/d). It was no secret that member nations collectively produced in excess of 30 mb/d for quite a while, but by removing the target altogether, OPEC sent a signal to oil markets. The decision, or non-decision as the case may be, kills the notion that OPEC will act decisively to boost oil prices.

Thinkstock
Low oil prices for much longer will once again put the spotlight back on U.S. shale production.
In response, just as in November 2014, oil prices crashed. On Dec. 7, both WTI and Brent traded down by more than 5%. The markets had been holding out a sliver of hope that OPEC would take action in Vienna, but it wasn't to be.

Low oil prices for much longer will once again put the spotlight back on U.S. shale production, which has lost only about 300,000 barrels per day since peaking in April at 9.6 mb/d. The latest EIA data shows that output fell by just 20,000 barrels per day in September, a stubbornly small decline given how low oil prices are trading nowadays.
But OPEC members, mostly driven by state-backed production, won't reduce their output. OPEC production is not driven by market forces; each individual country produces as much as possible. By failing to agree on a target cut, that trend will continue, if not increase. Iran has cleared just about all of the remaining hurdles to its comeback, and once sanctions are removed in January 2016, it could quickly increase output.

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower on Wednesday in a choppy session as oil resumed its decline, fuelling investor worries about global economic growth and causing the S&P 500 index to track the move in the commodity.

After a morning rally for both oil and stocks, the three major U.S. stock indexes fell as oil reversed course and investors also prepared for a Federal Reserve meeting next week that is expected to result in an interest rate hike.

"Often times investors will look at the commodity complex as a barometer for the global economy. Couple that with the fact that we broke support in the S&P 500," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York, citing selling after the S&P hit the 2050 level.

The S&P started its sell-off when U.S. crude oil (CLc1) started its decline around 10.35 a.m (1535 GMT). Crude futures settled lower on Wednesday after having risen as much as 4 percent as the market ignored a U.S. crude stockpile drawdown to focus on a build in distillates, including diesel, that was twice as big as expected.

"We've got a heck of a commodity bear market here and the Fed's about to raise interest rates," said Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling Capital Management in Austin, Texas. "People are growing concerned they're going to raise rates at the worst possible time."

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 75.7 points, or 0.43 percent, to 17,492.3, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 15.97 points, or 0.77 percent, to 2,047.62 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 75.38 points, or 1.48 percent, to 5,022.87.

The energy index (.SPNY) trimmed earlier gains to close up 1.3 percent after falling more than 10 percent since Dec. 1.

Investors are concerned about China's slowing economy and its impact on global demand for commodities as well as signs of weakness in U.S. manufacturing.

OPEC Isn’t Dead. It’s Shifting Strategies

OPEC is the ultimate cartel, it was formed to get its members a better price for their product than the free market would allow, and the members did that by working together to restrict supply. There is a reason that governments outlaw cartels, they prevent prices finding their true level and they transfer wealth from consumers to producers.

But when the cartel is made up of governments, well there is no-one to outlaw them, so instead they become revered bodies charged with bringing stability to markets and protecting the interests of producers and consumers. That's OPEC.

But there is only one reason for OPEC's existence and that is to make the oil price higher than it would be otherwise; everything else is window dressing.

Related: Marathon Abandons $270 Million Ultra-Deepwater Project

In Vienna OPEC wrong footed everyone by abandoning the quota limit for OPEC production. Of course everyone knows that the quotas were widely ignored anyway but if you look back over the past few years, as Javier Blas has done (see his tweet below), there is at least a correlation between OPEC's actual production and the declared limit.

WritOil prices may go even lower in 2016: IEA’s Birol
CNBC By Katy Barnato 1 hour ago
Oil prices pared some of their losses on Wednesday after falling to near seven-year lows earlier in the week, but those hoping for a rebound next year may be disappointed.

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Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told CNBC that crude prices could continue to fall in 2016, presenting a challenge to governments that are trying to encourage the use of relatively expensive sustainable energy.

"When we look at 2016, I don't see many reasons why we can see upward pressure on the prices… Demand is weaker and we may well see Iran come back (to the market) and there will be a lot of oil," Birol said, talking from the sidelines of the COP21 climate conference in Paris..

"So 2016 may well be another year with lower prices and this will have implications of course for investments in the oil sector."e a comment..

Ya , oil prices will stable after 2 or 3 years , but now onwards sure drop ...drop ...drop ....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed lower in a choppy trading session on Tuesday as oil prices pressured energy stocks for a fifth day and weak Chinese trade data reignited fears of a global economic slowdown, pushing down materials stocks.

Holidays mood ......drop lo ...drop lo....