Dow ends down over 200 points Friday, suffering fifth straight weekly decline
U.S. stock benchmarks were lower Friday afternoon after President Joe Biden called for...
U.S. stock benchmarks were lower Friday afternoon after President Joe Biden called for a suspension of normal trade relations with Russia as part of sanctions designed to economically isolate Moscow for its unprovoked attack in Ukraine.
Tentative optimism about the war, tied to comments Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly made about “positive” shifts in talks with Ukraine, faded after Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he didn’t see any progress in Russian-Ukrainian talks.
The S&P 500 indexSPX, -1.30% was down almost 31 points or 0.7% at about 4,229, with communication services SP500.50, -1.88% leading losses with a drop of more than 1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial AverageDJIA, -0.69% fell 84 points, or 0.3%, to 33,090, giving up modest gains earlier in the session.
The Nasdaq Composite IndexCOMP, -2.18% dropped almost 192 points, or 1.5%, to 12,938.
Big oil tax proposal - 50% "windfall" tax rate to fund stimulus checks
Legislators introduced a bill Thursday to tax the windfall profits of large oil companies at...
Legislators introduced a bill Thursday to tax the windfall profits of large oil companies at a 50% rate. Tax proceeds would be returned to consumers earning less than $75k/y through direct payments. The bill, as written, could create challenges and opportunities across the energy value chain.
The tax would apply to those companies producing or importing more than 300kb/d. The rate of 50% applies to barrels produced in or imported to the US. Importantly, the windfall tax is a "top line" tax, calculated as the difference between the average price of Brent oil from 2015-2019 and the current price.
An unnamed party attacked a Saudi refinery in Riyadh with a drone and caused a small fire,...
An unnamed party attacked a Saudi refinery in Riyadh with a drone and caused a small fire, the Saudi energy ministry said, as quoted by Reuters.
The attack was cut short and did not affect the operation of the refinery, officials also said. The party responsible for the attack has not been named. "The refinery's operations and supplies of petroleum and its derivatives were not affected," the statement said.
"These repeated acts of sabotage and terrorism on vital installations and civilian structures ... do not just target the Kingdom but aim to undermine the security and stability of global energy supplies," the energy ministry also said.
Saudi Arabia is strengthening energy ties with China, as the oil producer,...
Saudi Arabia is strengthening energy ties with China, as the oil producer, Aramco agreed to build a multi-billion dollar refining and chemicals project that will tap into the Asian country’s future demand.
The producer isn’t just targeting China. In January, Aramco moved further into Russia’s backyard, buying into Poland’s main refinery company and agreeing to supply crude into the Baltic region that had been traditionally dominated by Russian barrels.
These deals not only guarantee an outlet for Aramco’s crude for decades to come, they also provide its trading unit an opportunity to boost its business of supplying Saudi and other barrels to projects where it has stakes.
