Fire sale: More than $200 billion worth of oil and natural gas assets are for sale globally as companies come under renewed financial pressure from the prolonged commodity price rout, according to IHS Inc. “Basically almost everything is for sale,” IHS Chief Upstream Strategist Bob Fryklund tells Bloomberg. “Low cycles are when a lot of these companies can rebalance their portfolios. In theory, this is when you upgrade your existing portfolio.” Companies have announced $181.1 billion of oil and gas acquisitions this year, the most in more than a decade, compared with $167.1 billion in the same period in 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Read the full story.
Mixed signals: U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest drop in eight months in September as the cost of gasoline fell, but a steady pick-up in the prices of other goods and services suggested inflation was starting to firm. But Reuters reports there is also good news for the labor market, with other data released this morning showing new applications for unemployment aid fell back to a 42-year low last week. The very low level of layoffs and firming underlying inflation could keep the door open to an interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve this year. The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index fell 0.2% last month after slipping 0.1% in August. Read the full story.
Made to make due: There will be no benefit increase next year for millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees, the government announced this morning. The Associated Press reports it’s just the third time in 40 years that payments will remain flat. All three times have come since 2010. And there’s more bad news. The lack of a benefit increase means that many older people could face higher Medicare costs, an issue that has advocates lobbying Congress. The main reason for no increase next year is low gas prices. By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. That gauge came out this morning. Read the full story.
