Some Investors Say Bank Pledges to Cut Funding for Arctic Drilling Contain Loopholes
Some of the world's largest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., HSBC Holdings PLC and BNP Paribas SA, pledged in recent years to stop direct financing of Arctic oil exploration. The idea was to choke off money for fossil-fuel extraction in a pristine natural environment.
A battle has broken out among investors, environmentalists and banks over those pledges. Some investors and environmentalists say they contain loopholes, and money has continued to flow from big banks to companies active in areas of Norway, Russia, Canada and Alaska rich in oil and gas. Under pressure, two of the banks, BNP and HSBC, say they are reviewing their pledges to make them stronger.
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China's Third-Quarter Economic Growth Slows Sharply to 4.9%
BEIJING-China's economy grew 4.9% in the third quarter from a year earlier, slowing sharply from the previous quarter's 7.9% growth rate, as power shortages and supply-chain problems added to the impact from Beijing's efforts to rein in the real estate and technology sectors.
While many economists expected China's year-over-year growth to trend lower in the second half of 2021, based in part on statistical comparisons to last year, the scale of the third-quarter slowdown was sharper than expected, falling short of the 5.1% growth forecast by economists polled last week by The Wall Street Journal.
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Supply-Chain Bottlenecks, Elevated Inflation to Last Well Into Next Year, Survey Finds
Uncomfortably high inflation will grip the U.S. economy well into 2022, as constrained supply chains keep upward pressure on prices and, increasingly, curb output, according to economists surveyed this month by The Wall Street Journal.
The economists' inflation projections are up dramatically from July, while short-term growth outlooks are lower.
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GOP Sees Opening as Biden Copes With Pre-Christmas Inflation, Supply-Chain Issues
The White House is wrestling with supply-chain issues and elevated inflation ahead of the winter holiday shopping season-two economic problems that Republicans say the administration's own policies would exacerbate, driving up the risk of empty store shelves and higher holiday prices.
With just over a month to go before the holiday shopping season unofficially starts the day after Thanksgiving, the Biden administration is seeking ways to ease the bottlenecks in the strained supply chain, while acknowledging that they might not be able resolve all those pressures immediately.
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Green Investing Looks to Clean Up the Maritime Industry
First bonds went green. Now they are going blue.
Seaspan Corp., the world's largest containership lessor by cargo-carrying capacity, sold nearly $1 billion of so-called blue bonds earlier this year that sought to entice new investors by promising to fund vessels that will lower emissions and pollution at sea.
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'Crazy' Bets on $200 Oil Invade the Options Market
A roaring trade in bullish crude-oil options says the 2021 energy rally is far from over.
Traders once again are betting that the U.S. oil benchmark will surge above $100 a barrel, from a recent $82, as early as December. U.S. crude, known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, is up 10% this month, and 70% this year, but it hasn't hit $100 since the oil crash of 2014.
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Global Investors Gain a New Way to Bet on Stocks in China
Hong Kong started trading in futures tied to an index of stocks from mainland China, giving global investors a new tool for betting on Chinese markets.
The futures are linked to the MSCI China A 50 Connect Index, which was launched in August. The benchmark covers major A shares-as stocks listed in either Shanghai or Shenzhen are known-that are accessible to international investors through the Stock Connect system that links onshore markets with Hong Kong.
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Behind the Energy Crisis: Fossil Fuel Investment Drops, and Renewables Aren't Ready
An energy price shock is serving as a reminder of the world's continued dependency on fossil fuels-even amid efforts to shift to renewable sources of energy.
Demand for oil, coal and natural gas has skyrocketed world-wide in recent weeks as unusual weather conditions and resurgent economies emerging from the pandemic combine to create energy shortages from China to Brazil to the U.K.
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Economy Week Ahead: China GDP, U.S. Industry and Housing
The latest snapshot of China's economic growth, U.S. industrial production and the housing market highlight this week's economic data.
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Cars Are Making Money Like Homes-For Now
Financially, your car is behaving more like your home right now, bringing new opportunities and hard-to-foresee risks.
Used-vehicle values have broken records over the past year, with inflation running at an unprecedented 24%, according to the latest official data. This is painful for car buyers, but there is a less-discussed flip side: It is a great time to be a car owner.
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Democrats Face a Deadline on Benefits and Climate Bill Consensus
WASHINGTON-Democrats still tussling over how to scale back their ambitions to expand the country's social benefits and overhaul its climate-change policy face dwindling time to reach an agreement as both the House and Senate return to Washington this week.
One major element related to climate change-a $150 billion program aimed at pushing utilities to draw more power from clean-energy sources-could be cut from the bill, according to people familiar with the negotiations, as it has drawn objections from the centrist Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
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Group of 16 Americans and a Canadian, Including Five Children, Kidnapped in Haiti
A group of American missionaries working in Haiti was kidnapped by a notorious gang amid a sharp rise in abductions and political turmoil in the Caribbean nation, a spokesman for the Haitian Justice Ministry said.
Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement Sunday that a group that included 16 Americans and one Canadian was kidnapped Saturday morning during a trip to an orphanage. The organization said that five of those who were abducted are children. An aide to Prime Minister Ariel Henry said the missionaries were taken hostage after being ambushed by heavily armed men on a road outside the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
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U.S. Afghan Resettlements Slowed by Housing Shortage, Old Technology
The push to resettle the first wave of Afghan evacuees brought to the U.S. is expected to take months longer than first anticipated as a measles scare, a nationwide housing shortage and paperwork delays have slowed the process, according to government and resettlement officials familiar with the effort.
According to Defense Department officials and volunteers involved in operations, the goal originally was to resettle the evacuees by the end of the year if not sooner. But earlier this month officials began telling volunteer groups they would likely be needed through March or longer. "There is no way we are done by Christmas," said one defense official.
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Democrats Bet on Raising Taxes on High-Income People, Big Businesses
WASHINGTON-Many Democrats are willing-even eager-to enact tax increases on high-income households and big businesses and campaign on them in next year's midterm elections, embracing a stance that the party has struggled with in the past.
Although Democrats' slim majorities have forced them to abandon some of their most sweeping tax proposals, President Biden and congressional Democrats are still seeking to raise about $2 trillion over a decade from businesses and high-income households.
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California Scrambles to Find Electricity to Offset Plant Closures
California is racing to secure large amounts of power in the next few years to make up for the impending closure of fossil-fuel power plants and a nuclear facility that provides nearly 10% of the electricity generated in the state.
The California Public Utilities Commission has ordered utilities to buy an unprecedented amount of renewable energy and battery storage as the state phases out four natural-gas-fired power plants and retires Diablo Canyon, the state's last nuclear plant, starting in 2024.
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Write to sarka.halas@wsj.com
TODAY IN CANADA
Earnings:
- Nothing major scheduled
Economic Indicators (ET):
0815 Sep Housing Starts
0830 Aug International transactions in securities
1030 Bank of Canada Business Outlook Survey
N/A Alberta and Northwest Territories municipal elections in Canada
Stocks to Watch:
No items published
Other News:
*BOC's Macklem: Supply Bottlenecks Look More Complicated, Persistent Than Expected
Group of 16 Americans and a Canadian Kidnapped in Haiti
A group of American missionaries working in Haiti was kidnapped by a notorious gang amid a sharp rise in abductions and political turmoil in the Caribbean nation, a spokesman for the Haitian Justice Ministry said.
Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries said in a statement Sunday that a group that included 16 Americans and one Canadian was kidnapped Saturday morning during a trip to an orphanage.
The organization said that five of those who were abducted are children. An aide to Prime Minister Ariel Henry said the missionaries were taken hostage after being ambushed by heavily armed men on a road outside the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
"Join us in praying for those who are being held hostage, the kidnappers, and the families, friends, and churches of those affected," Christian Aid Ministries said.
Gédéon Jean of the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights, a Port-au-Prince-based organization that tracks kidnappings in Haiti, said the kidnapping was carried out by members of the 400 Mawozo gang.
Market Talk:
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10-18-21 0607ET
