■Crude oil
Venezuela may start exports
Crude oil fell from a 23-month high in its biggest decline in almost a week after Venezuela state oil company President Ali Rodriguez said exports will return to normal next month. Rodriguez, head of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said he expects most oil workers in the country will be on the job by mid-January and exports will return to normal next month, the New York Times reported, without saying why the strikers would return to work. Crude oil for February delivery fell as much as US$0.55, or 1.7 percent, to US$31.42 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the biggest drop since Dec. 20. It traded at US$31.53 at 11:18am Singapore time. An analyst and a Venezuela union leader said Venezuela oil exports are unlikely to return to normal next month because the country's 40,000 oil workers haven't agreed to end the four-week long strike called by opponents to President Hugo Chavez.
■ Semiconductor
Hynix lenders to meet
Lenders will meet Dec. 30 to vote on a third bailout for the world's third-largest computer memory chipmaker, aimed at keeping Hynix Semiconductor in business, Internet news provider Edaily said, citing an unidentified creditor official. Creditors will also decide on whether to write down 95 percent of Hynix's stock, the report said. The lenders will meet at 2pm at Korea Exchange Bank, the company's leading creditor. Deutsche Bank AG, which was commissioned by creditors to propose alternatives for recovering more than US$5 billion of loans from Hynix, proposed swapping 1.9 trillion won of debt for new shares and delaying payment on 3 trillion won to 2006 from 2003-2004, Korea Exchange Bank said.
Agencies
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