Month: May 2018

Virginia Wallen is a wife, a mother of three, and a woodworker. She achieved what she has never imagined she would — turning her carpentry hobby into a business. The entrepreneur isn’t just succeeding in her new career, she’s tearing down stereotypes and building a new role model. It happens for a reason Wallen, who grew up helping out on her family’s farm, developed all the skills required by a professional woodworker early on. “It wasn’t so much as a passion — growing up doing woodworking – as much as a requirement: help mend a fence or work on the farm or do things like that,” she recalls. “When given a choice in high school between home economics and woodshop class I picked woodshop and welding. But the passion happened a lot later when the HGTV [TV channel for home improvement] came out.” Still, carpentry wasn’t her first career choice. Wallen worked for 11 years with an IT company. “I was pretty certain that that was my career path for the rest of my life,” she says. “So when I got laid off I was devastated. I just never expected that I would ever be laid off. I was applying for jobs everywhere but because I’m so type A. I can’t sit around and do nothing. And, I was driving my husband crazy.” New career Inspired by her dogs, Penny and Chloe, Wallen returned to her hobby… and made a crate for them. Then, she posted the pictures on line. “That …

Wall Street surged on Wednesday as surging oil prices boosted energy stocks following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision the previous day to quit a nuclear agreement with Iran. Gains were broad and volume was high, with all but the utilities and telecom sectors advancing as investors who had moved to the sidelines in recent days ahead of Trump’s decision returned to the market. “It’s classic ‘buy on the terrible news,’ ” said Ian Winer, director of trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, referring to the wider market’s rally. “People had gotten way too nervous about this.” Trump’s decision for the United States pull out of the international agreement aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was good news for investors betting on a rise in oil prices. Crude hit its highest level in 3½ years as investors bet the U.S. withdrawal would increase risks of conflict in the Middle East and curtail global oil supplies. The S&P energy index jumped 2.03 percent, bringing its gain this quarter to 12.6 percent, more than any other sector. “The rise in oil is helping energy sector, which is expected to be a pretty big growth sector. A lot of analysts are expecting strong earnings as oil rebounds, and that hasn’t really played out so much early this year,” said Shawn Cruz, senior trading specialist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.75 percent to end at 24,542.54 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.97 percent to 2,697.79. The Nasdaq Composite added 1 percent to finish the session at 7,339.91. Volatility Index down The Cboe Volatility Index, the most widely followed barometer of …

 A New York hedge fund founder was arrested Wednesday on charges that he exaggerated his company’s performance by over $200 million to impress and preserve investors. Anilesh Ahuja, 49, of Manhattan, was charged with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud. Federal officials said that the founder, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of the investment firm Premium Point Investments LP had carried out a fraud from 2014 through 2016 that was designed to make investors believe that the firm’s hedge funds were doing much better than they were. Between 2008 and 2016, the firm managed billions of dollars in assets, exceeding $5 billion at one time at its peak, authorities said. Amin Majidi, 52, of Armonk, New York, a former Premium Point portfolio manager, and Jeremy Shor, 46, of Manhattan, a former trader at the firm, also were charged. A lawyer for Ahuja did not immediately comment. A lawyer for Majidi declined comment. An attorney for Shor did not immediately return a message. “By allegedly cooking the books, Ahuja and his co-defendants made the fund appear more attractive to would-be investors and dissuaded current investors from withdrawing their investments,” said Audrey Strauss, a federal prosecutor. William F. Sweeney Jr., head of the New York FBI office, said in a release that the defendants’ “alleged practice of intentionally misleading investors and mismarking securities held in the funds they managed allowed them to charge higher fees and hold captive money that would have likely been withdrawn had their clients been aware …

Saudi Arabia is monitoring the impact of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal on oil supplies and is ready to offset any shortage but it will not act alone to fill the gap, an OPEC source familiar with the kingdom’s oil thinking said. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday abandoned a nuclear deal with Iran and announced the “highest level” of sanctions against the OPEC member. The original agreement had lifted sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. Iran is the third-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia and Iraq. During the last round of sanctions, Iran’s oil supplies fell by around 1 million barrels per day (bpd), but the country re-emerged as a major oil exporter, especially to refiners in Asia, after sanctions were lifted in January 2016. “People shouldn’t take it for granted that Saudi Arabia will produce more oil single-handedly. We need to assess first the impact if there is any, in terms of disruption, in terms of a reduction of Iran’s production,” the OPEC source said Wednesday. “We have managed to put together this new alliance between OPEC and non-OPEC. Saudi Arabia will not in any way act independently of its partners.” Riyadh is working closely with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which holds OPEC’s presidency in 2018 and non-OPEC producer Russia for “coordination and market consultations,” the OPEC source said. He said any action would be taken in coordination with all OPEC and non-OPEC …

U.S. producer prices barely rose in April after strong gains in the first quarter, held back by a moderation in the cost of services such as hotel accommodation and healthcare, which could ease fears that inflation pressures were rapidly building up. The slowdown in wholesale price growth reported by the Labor Department on Wednesday is, however, likely temporary as manufacturers have been reporting paying more for raw materials. Economists also expect oil prices to surge after President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Iran. “Inflation isn’t breaking out, although with Trump exiting the Iran nuclear deal, higher energy prices could kick-start a new round of inflation at the producer level,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. The Labor Department said on Wednesday its producer price index for final demand edged up 0.1 percent last month after increasing 0.3 percent in March. That lowered the year-on-year increase in the PPI to 2.6 percent from 3.0 percent in March. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI gaining 0.2 percent last month and rising 2.8 percent from a year ago. A key gauge of underlying producer price pressures that excludes food, energy and trade services also nudged up 0.1 percent last month. The so-called core PPI had increased by 0.4 percent in each of the past three months. In the 12 months through April, the core PPI rose 2.5 percent after jumping 2.9 percent in March. Core goods prices …

For generations, farmers planted the lush earth of Awedai and nearby areas in eastern Ethiopia with coffee trees, earning a livelihood from a crop that is now the country’s main export. But the centuries-long practice is now being abandoned in favor of khat, a leafy plant chewed as a stimulant in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. “Coffee comes only once a year. But you can harvest khat twice a year,” said Jemal Moussa, a 45-year-old farmer and father of six who depends on the narcotic leaf for income. “Khat is much more useful.” He said it was in the early 2000s that farmers in the Awedai area started planting khat as its popularity rose and coffee prices remained stagnant. One kg of coffee sells for between 50 and 60 birr. A bunch of khat, while not measured in kilograms, goes for 100 birr. Jemal said by this year, the entire economy of Awedai, a small town 35 km outside the ancient city of Harar, relied on the leaf. Trucks piled with khat head out of the town every 30 minutes, dispersing their produce to the nearby Ethiopian Somali Region and Hargeisa, in the neighboring semi-autonomous region of Somaliland. Illegal in several Western nations, the leaf is immensely popular in the region, giving the chewer a mild amphetamine-like high. In addition to cash incentive of khat, coffee growing is being affected by dwindling forest coverage as well as drought. Farmers believe the characteristic flavor of Ethiopian coffee is …

A United Nations agency said on Tuesday an “unjust” U.S. financial and trade embargo on Cuba had cost the country’s economy $130 billion over nearly six decades, coming up with the same estimate as the island’s communist government. Although many U.S. allies join Washington in criticizing Cuba’s one-party system and repression of political opponents, the United States has lost nearly all international support for the embargo since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The U.N. has adopted a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the embargo with overwhelming support every year since 1992. In a report ahead of the vote last year, Cuba estimated total damage from the embargo at $130 billion. “This country which welcomes us today .. is testing its own ways to face the brutal human costs that it has sustained during an unjust blockade,” the head of the U.N.’s regional economic body for Latin America, ECLAC, Alicia Barcena told its biennial meeting in Havana on Tuesday. “We evaluate it every year as an economic commission and we know that this blockade costs the Cuban people more than $130 billion at current prices and has left an indelible mark on its economic structure,” she said, without detailing how the organization came to that estimate. After agreeing to a historic U.S.-Cuban detente in 2014, former U.S. President Barack Obama eased the embargo, which was fully put into place in 1962. But U.S. President Donald Trump last year tightened travel and trade restrictions again. Only the U.S. Congress …

President Donald Trump will allow year-round sales of renewable fuel with blends of 15 percent ethanol as part of an emerging deal to make changes to the federal ethanol mandate.   Republican senators and the White House announced the deal Tuesday after a closed-door meeting, the latest in a series of White House sessions on ethanol.   The Environmental Protection Agency currently bans the 15-percent blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days. Gasoline typically contains 10 percent ethanol. Farm-state lawmakers have pushed for greater sales of the higher ethanol blend to boost demand for the corn-based fuel.   Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley called the agreement good news for farmers and drivers alike, saying it would increase ethanol production and consumer choice at the pump.   Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the deal will save the jobs of thousands of blue-collar workers at refineries in Texas, Pennsylvania and other states.   “Terrific final decision from @POTUS meeting,” Cruz tweeted. “This is a WIN-WIN for everyone.”   The decision allowing E15 to be sold year-round will provide “relief to refiners” and “protect our hardworking farmers and refinery workers,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said. “The president is satisfied with the attention and care that all parties devoted to this issue.”   Trump met Tuesday with Grassley, Cruz, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, as well as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.   The EPA oversees …

With the threat of tariffs and counter-tariffs between Washington and Beijing looming, Chinese buyers are canceling orders for U.S. soybeans, a trend that could deal a blow to American farmers if it continues. At the same time, farmers in China are being encouraged to plant more soy, apparently to help make up for any shortfall from the United States.   Beijing has included soybeans on a list of $50 billion of U.S. exports on which it has said it would impose 25 percent tariffs if the United States follows through on its threats to impose the same level of tariffs on the same value of Chinese goods. The U.S. tariffs could kick in later this month; China would likely retaliate soon after. It can take a month or longer for soybean shipments to travel from the U.S. to China. Any soybeans en route to China now could be hit by the tariff by the time they arrive. “The Chinese aren’t willing to buy US soybeans with a 25 percent tax hanging over their head,” said Dan Basse, president of AgResource, an agricultural research and advisory firm. “You just don’t want the risk.” China typically buys most of its soybeans from South American nations such as Brazil and Argentina during spring and early summer. It shifts to U.S. soybeans in the fall. As a result, for now, the cutbacks from the United States are relatively small. But should they persist, it could cause real pain to U.S. farmers. Roughly 60 percent of …

A legal dispute between ConocoPhillips and Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA could leave Curacao’s economically important Isla refinery without crude oil to process, posing a “potential crisis” for the Caribbean island, Curacao’s Prime Minister said on Tuesday. Conoco has won court orders allowing it to seize PDVSA assets on Caribbean islands, including Curacao, in efforts to collect on a $2 billion arbitral award linked to the 2007 nationalization of Conoco assets. The operations of the 335,000 barrel-per-day Isla refinery, which provides as much as 10 percent of Curacao’s gross domestic product, could be left without crude supplies if PDVSA halts all oil shipments to prevent them from being seized, Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath said in a telephone interview. “We are aware of the potential risks for the operation of the refinery,” Rhuggenaath said. “A stoppage of the operation would have a devastating impact economically and socially.” PDVSA has already suspended oil storage and shipping from its Caribbean facilities, according to a PDVSA source and Reuters data. Curacao is prepared to purchase refined products on the global market to ensure it can maintain supplies for the local population as well as for shipping. “This is indeed a potential crisis that can very profoundly affect the social and economic situation of our island, and therefore we are always willing to discuss and reach out to relevant parties,” said Rhuggenaath. He said Conoco has yet to seize any assets. Curacao is still scrutinizing a lien – a legal instrument that paves the way …

An al-Qaida affiliate threatened attacks on Western companies’ operations across North and West Africa on Tuesday, calling them “legitimate targets” and urging Muslims to boycott them. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has launched raids on installations in the past, in particular in Algeria where it carried out a major assault on a gas plant in 2013 that killed dozens of workers.  Its fighters have also carried out high-profile attacks on hotels frequented by foreigners in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. “This statement calls to boycott all Western companies and foundations … that operate in the Islamic Maghreb … and the countries of the Sahel, and gives a warning to them that they are legitimate target for the mujahideen,” it said. The statement, which was circulated on social media and translated by the extremism watchdog SITE, singled out France – the former colonial power in much of North and West Africa – and its allies in the region. “We have decided to strike that which prolongs the continuity of these agent governments and enables the French occupier to provide a lavish life and prosperity to its people,” it said. The region has witnessed a rise in Islamist militancy since an uprising in Libya toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, sparking chaos during which armed factions looted government weapons stocks. France led a military intervention in Mali in 2013 to drive back Islamist groups that had seized the country’s desert north a year earlier. Paris still has thousands of troops deployed …

Canadian and U.S. negotiators held “constructive” talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Tuesday as efforts focused on agreeing to new rules for the auto sector, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said. Freeland, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo are meeting in Washington this week in search of a breakthrough in the grinding talks to renegotiate NAFTA that began last August. Hopes for a deal hinge substantially on the three countries’ ability to update rules for the automotive sector, the central plank of the Trump administration’s push to make changes to NAFTA that bring more jobs and investment to the United States. After a brief meeting with Lighthizer, Freeland told reporters she had held “good, constructive” talks with the U.S. team and that discussions focused on auto rules of origin. “We are definitely making progress. I am not going to predict the day, hour and minute that we will be finished. We are certainly very, very hard at work, negotiators from all three sides,” she said. The meetings would continue, the minister added. She, Guajardo and Lighthizer would be in touch by phone “and we’ll get together today again as needed,” Freeland said. Guajardo and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray later entered the USTR offices to meet Lighthizer and other U.S. officials without taking questions from reporters. U.S. President Donald Trump initiated the talks to retool the 1990s-era trade agreement, threatening to dump NAFTA if it cannot be changed to …

Walmart’s online grocery delivery partnerships with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have ended, according to two sources, a potential setback for the retailer’s ambitions to challenge Amazon.com head-on with speedy delivery of groceries to people’s homes. The end of the Walmart partnerships, which has not been previously reported and was confirmed by Walmart and Uber, undercuts a vision the ride-hailing companies laid out: a service that can efficiently deliver anything on-demand, including people and cargo, at the touch of a smartphone app. “It is incredibly hard to deliver people and packages together,” said a source with a delivery company that works with Walmart and has direct knowledge of the matter. “They are two completely different business models.” The decision marks an abrupt end to a business relationship that Walmart and Uber announced with much fanfare less than two years ago. At Walmart’s shareholders meeting in June 2016, CEO Doug McMillon touted the company’s investments in technology and spoke about the partnerships in front of a cheering crowd of 14,000 employees. Soon after, Uber’s grocery delivery service was launched and expanded to four markets. As recently as March, just before Uber ended the arrangement, Walmart said Uber would be a partner in its plans to deliver groceries to more than 40 percent of the country. “There was clearly some lack of communication there,” said one of the sources with knowledge of the partnerships ending. Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman confirmed the end of the tie-ups when asked by Reuters, but did not …

The worst drought in living memory has hit vineyards in South Africa’s Western Cape hard, reducing grape harvests and adding to pressure on the region’s centuries-old wine industry, officials said on Tuesday. In its latest wine harvest report, industry body Vinpro said South Africa’s wine-grape production was down 15 percent from last year, and would lead to a production shortfall of 170 million liters of wine and prices rising as much as 11 percent. South Africa’s wine sector, which dates back to the arrival of the first European settlers in the 1650s, employs 300,000 people directly and indirectly and contributed about $3 billion to the economy in 2015, according to an industry study. The government has declared the drought a disaster in the Western Cape, the country’s main wine-producing region around the tourist city of Cape Town. Besides vineyards, it has decimated wheat crops and cut apple, grape and pear exports, most of which go to Europe. Vinpro managing director Rico Basson said more than a third of vineyards were operating at a loss and overall numbers were shrinking as farmers uprooted vines to make way for more profitable fruit crops or simply failed to replace old vines. Over the last decade, the amount of land used for growing grapes had shrunk by 9 percent, he said. The problems in South Africa mirror those in other wine-growing countries and are likely to fuel concerns about changes in weather patterns as a result of global warming. Globally, wine output fell to …

Former President Robert Mugabe will not appear before Zimbabwe’s parliament as scheduled on Wednesday to answer questions on diamond mining operations, a legislator said. Temba Mliswa, who leads the parliamentary committee on mines, said the clerk of parliament hadn’t written to Mugabe to invite him to appear. “It has been delayed but that resolution still stands,” Mliswa said. “He will have to appear before the committee whether he likes it or not.” The committee had ordered the 94-year-old Mugabe to face legislators over his previous pronouncements that the state had been deprived of at least $15 billion in diamond revenue by mining companies. Mugabe said in March 2016 the country was robbed of the revenue by diamond companies, including joint ventures between Chinese companies and the army, police and intelligence services, whose operations were shielded from public scrutiny. Specifically, he said Zimbabwe lost $15 billion from the Marange gem fields, more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of the capital. He later expelled the companies and replaced them with a state-owned diamond company. Mliswa said a new date for Mugabe to testify would be set. The questioning on Wednesday would have been Mugabe’s first public appearance since the army deposed him last November in a de facto coup. …