■ ENERGYT
Iran sees oil going higher
The price of crude oil is set to rise even further to US$150 a barrel by the end of summer, Iranian representative to OPEC Mohammad Ali Khatibi said on Sunday. “I foresee the price of oil reaching around US$150 a barrel by the end of the summer,” the state broadcaster’s Web site Ali Khatibi as saying. But he said that he believed that prices might fall back slightly in the short term after the US$10 leap registered on Friday. Iran, OPEC’s No. 2 exporter and the fourth biggest worldwide, has rejected calls for a hike in the output quota of the cartel, saying the high prices are not driven by fundamentals.
■INVESTMENT
Lehman to report losses
US investment giant Lehman Brothers is set to announce losses surpassing US$2 billion for the second quarter of this year — far more than the US$300 million predicted by analysts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The Journal reported on its Web site that Lehman was close to raising some US$5 billion in fresh capital from various investors in hopes of stemming a rumored liquidity crisis. Analysts have said Lehman is trying to weather a widespread credit crunch unleashed in part by the US housing slump. The paper said Lehman stock has lost about 50 percent of its value this year as investors fret over its exposure to the mortgage market.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Inflation hits new high
British factory gate inflation hit a record level last month as firms’ raw material costs surged at their fastest rate in at least 22 years, official figures showed yesterday. The Office for National Statistics said output prices rose 1.6 percent last month, taking the annual rate to a record 8.9 percent. Core output prices, which exclude food, alcohol and tobacco, also surged by 1.2 percent on the month, three times the monthly rate predicted by analysts, as scrap metal prices soared. That monthly rise was only last higher in March 1980. Input prices continue to march higher to new record rates of inflation. Seasonally adjusted input prices jumped 3.8 percent on the month for an annual rate of 27.6 percent, also the highest since comparable records began in 1986.
■TRADE
German surplus rises
Germany’s trade surplus shot up to 18.7 billion euros (US$29.5 billion) in April, official data showed yesterday, coming in well above forecasts but against a backdrop of weaker economic activity. The surplus surpassed the March figure of 17.5 billion euros, as well as an analyst poll by Dow Jones Newswires, which had forecast 15.1 billion in April for the world’s leading exporter. Overall, exports increased by 13.9 percent to 89.8 billion euros on an annual basis, while imports gained 11.7 percent to 71.0 billion, the figures showed. In trade with countries outside the EU, exports gained 18.4 percent from April last year to 31.8 billion euros, while imports rose by 12.1 percent to 24.7 billion. Germany also posted a general current account surplus of 14.5 billion euros, down from 17.5 billion in March.
■RUSSIA
Forum brings deals
Deals worth US$14.6 billion dollars were signed on the sidelines of an economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said on Sunday. The agreements signed included a property development deal in Saint Petersburg worth US$5 billion and a deal for the production of Fiat cars and engines in Tatarstan, officials said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of